heidi | If there's a Scholastic Book Fair in your neighborhood...

Shopping there can help kids who've lost books and schools that've lost libraries along the Gulf Coast region.

Thank you for contacting us. We have received many similar requests from our
valued school partners. Like you, everyone at Scholastic Book Fairs is
deeply concerned about the thousands of children, their families, their
teachers, and all those whose lives have been impacted by the terrible
devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In order to ensure we are meeting the
most critical needs, at this time we regretfully cannot facilitate
individual donations for schools and organizations.

Right now, we are focusing our disaster relief efforts on the most urgent
and immediate needs - supplies, emergency care and shelter for displaced
families. To help provide long-term shelter to displaced families, as well
as other support for them and for recovery workers, Scholastic made an
immediate donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief
Fund and also is matching all employee contributions to the Fund.

Please rest assured that we are doing everything we can to efficiently,
quickly and effectively support ongoing relief efforts. Through our One For
Books (http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/chair/revenue/oneforbooks.htm)
program, which matches school-based fundraising efforts with book donations,
we are directing donated books to children who have been affected by the
hurricane via our partnership with Kids in Distressed Situations
(http://www.kidsdonations.org/). We also are matching book donations for
every school that holds a reading-related event to benefit the hurricane
victims. These donations also are being administered through K.I.D.S., which
has an existing infrastructure in place to expertly facilitate this effort.
For more information, please visit our website at
www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/disasterrelief.

Scholastic also is providing timely, age-appropriate news coverage and
resources for children, parents and teachers through www.scholastic.com,
Scholastic News Online (www.scholastic.com/news) and Scholastic Classroom
Magazines. These resources are useful tools for educators to use in the
classroom as they respond to questions from children and attempt to
alleviate their anxieties in the wake of the storm.

Clearly, recovery will be a long-term effort, and in the months ahead we
will continue to partner with the American Red Cross, Kids In Distressed
Situations and the state departments of education in the affected region to
assess their immediate and long-term needs for educational materials that
will be so important in helping restore normalcy to children's lives.