Maya Luria, director of patient relations and outreach at TMC, and Eli Hawley attend an announcement for the Tucson Festival of Books at La Encantada shopping center.
Eli Hawley, right, laughs while hugging Maya Luria, director of patient relations, service and outreach for Tucson Medical Center, during an announcement for the Tucson Festival of Books at The Core in La Encantada shopping center,
The Tucson Festival of Books announced Tuesday that it has donated more than $2 million to local literacy groups since its inception in 2009.
“The Tucson Festival of Books is not only a celebration of literature, it’s a celebration of literacy,” said Bill Viner, a festival founder.
The festival funds literacy donations through corporate sponsorships, nonprofit grants and individual contributions. Admission to the festival is and always has been free.
Without our sponsors, the authors who all volunteer their time, the 1,500+ volunteers who run the event, as well as the wonderful community of book lovers who support the festival by joining us every year, we could not put on the book festival and it couldn’t have grown to be the third-largest in the United States, said Melanie Morgan, festival executive director.
The 2020 Tucson Festival of Books, sponsored by Tucson Medical Center, the University of Arizona and the Arizona Daily Star, is March 14-15 on the University of Arizona campus. For details about the festival’s more than 350 presenting authors, 220 exhibitors or hundreds of volunteer opportunities go to TucsonFestivalofBooks.org
Donations from the 2019 festival proceeds included:
$5,000 to Newspapers in Education.
$70,000 to UA literacy outreach programs.
$70,000 to Reading Seed.
$70,000 to Literacy Connects.
Since 2009, 58,500 children received literacy improvement assistance, 925 adults received literacy improvement assistance, and 37,400 books were given to children with the money granted to Literacy Connects and Reading Seed, said Betty Stauffer, Literacy Connects executive director.
