Eight Schools Receive Book Donations through City National Bank, Barnes and Noble Contest

The "Reading is The Way Up" program from City National Bank has found its way to six schools in the San Diego Unified School District, meaning teachers in those schools will be buying new books from Barnes and Noble.
Schools receiving the grants are: Adams, Curie, Doyle, Spreckels and Walker elementary schools, Correia and Standley middle schools, and University City High School.


The book donations were the result of a Holiday Book Drive last December at Barnes & Noble, the world's largest book seller, in partnership with Reading is The way up at City National.

Schools had a variety of ways of celebrating the award. At Walker Elementary in Mira Mesa, students thanked Carolyn Rodriguez, Barnes & Noble vice president, and Christian Weissman, City National vice president, when they visited the school. Principal Rochelle Dawes estimates each teacher will have about $157 to spend on books as a result of the grant.

Customers at 15 Barnes & Noble stores in four states donated nearly 16,000 new books and City National matched this donation with $50,000 for the additional 16,000 new books to be purchased through Barnes & Noble by the school librarians at each of the 28 schools receiving books.

"Barnes & Noble is a great community partner that City National enjoys teaming up with during the holidays to promote the importance of literacy and education," said Carolyn Rodriguez, vice president and program administrator for City National Bank. "Literacy is one of the best gifts you can give a child, and through City National's literacy program we have now donated more than 115,000 new books to school libraries in California, Nevada, New York and Nashville since the inception of this program in 2002."

The City National and Barnes & Noble Holiday Book Drive ran from December 1 through January 1 and included 15 stores in the four states where the bank has a presence. City National and Barnes & Noble representatives are presenting the book and monetary donations to school administrators and students at school assemblies in the four states. The bank's literacy mascot "Blue" is also taking part in these donation presentations.

"We are very excited and appreciative of this generous donation from City National Bank and Barnes & Noble," said Courtney Haley, librarian of Tusculum Elementary School in Nashville. "This is a great example of a community partnership that's helping schools and children. We applaud City National and Barnes & Noble for taking a lead role in this wonderful community endeavor."