Guest blog by John Wood: Lucky Number Ten

In January 2000, an exciting piece of news showed up in my mailbox in San Francisco, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service.  

Exciting news? From the IRS? Actually, yes. Inside that envelope was the news that my dream had been realized -– the approval of incorporation for a new and badly-named charity called Books for Nepal.

Ten years later, the organization now known as Room to Read has achieved far more than I ever dreamed possible. Thanks to the passion and dedication of so many of us who believe that World Change Starts with Educated Children, we are now able to celebrate what we think of as “the year of tens.” 

During our ten year anniversary year, we will grow our Girls’ Education program so that it supports the education of over 10,000 girls. We have already opened our 1,000th school, and quite soon -– in fact just next week -– we will celebrate the opening of our 10,000th Reading Room library! 

As a person whose life was profoundly influenced by the libraries in my school and my home town, I cannot think of a happier set of numbers than these: over 4 million children visiting 10,000 libraries stocked with over 7 million books.

The 10,000th Reading Room celebration will take place on April 30, back in the place where it all began:  Nepal. Along with a small group of Room to Read investors, we will experience the history of Room to Read by doing a “check up" visit to the first school we opened, along with that first library in the village of Bahundanda. We will then celebrate the 10,000th Reading Room milestone on the outskirts of Pokhara, in the shadow of the Annapurna mountain range. While there, we will make our vow to continue bringing books, libraries, and the lifelong gift of education to even more children during our second decade.

Along the way, as much as we can get out to you, our team will be blogging, Tweeting, FLIPing, Facebook posting, taking photographs, and pretty much doing everything short of sending you a personal voicemail in order to share the excitement of this trip.

And, thanks to all your RT’s on our #tweet4books promoted Twitter campaign and thanks to the generous donation by Breadpig (@breadpig), we’ve raised the equivalent of over 3,600 books that will fully stock our 10,000th library. I look forward to carrying in some of my favorite Nepali local language children’s titles like Tommy Tempo or Dorje and Bhakku and handing those over to the children who are eagerly awaiting the opening of their new library.

We hope you will, as they say, "WATCH THIS SPACE" and keep tabs on our journey. Our Twitter feeds are: @roomtoread and @johnwoodRTR.

We will announce new blog posts from Nepal via these Twitter accounts. We hope you will not only follow us, but also share the news and excitement with friends, family, co-workers, and potential chapter members and investors.

We will look forward to updating you, live from the Himalayas!

With warmest regards,

John Wood

Comments

[Yvette Vignando]

I am in awe - an incredible achievement. The great thing about this work is that it has an exponential effect as those children become parents. The 30th April celebration would be a wonderful event - hope everyone there enjoys it and feels the congratulations and support of all of us around the world. Sincerely - an incredible set of numbers and an inspiring achievement.
Cheers from Sydney, Australia

[Shilshila Acharya]

Congratulations for the 10,000th library!! I just finished reading your book today and I'm so impressed with all the good work your team over the globe is doing and generating these wonderful, inspiring numbers. I thank you a lot for filling me with so much of inspiration and positive energy through your book, the energy which I'll also use to contribute to my community.
Its so nice to read about tomorrow's program, that too, in Nepal.Thanks for the great work you've done for Nepal and the world's children. I want to be a part of ROOM TO READ,too.

Cheers!
Shilshila
Kathmandu, Nepal

[Nike Shox CL]

So nice to read your perfect blog on the spare time. Your article brings me different kind of feeling about the literature.

[Tulsa Chiropractor]

Wow! Congratulations and I wish you success in your future endeavors.

[Chiropractor Kennewick Wa]

My hat is off to you! What an amazing track record...1000 schools and 10000 reading rooms. You guys don't let any grass grow under your feet do you!! Keep up the good work.

[Аварии]

Thanks за материалы!
Respect blog.roomtoread.org

[Bronx Chiropractors]

1,000 schools? Wow, that's an incredible feat. Just imagine if there were more people from more organizations with that kind of track record? What else could be accomplished?

[Chiropractor Scottsdale]

Inspiration indeed, small people making a big difference. We need more of that in this world.

[Investing]

10,000th Reading Room celebration is a massive turn out and new blog posts from Nepal via Twitter accounts sounds very exciting.

[cash for gold Oklahoma city]

By helping the girl child get educated we are all contributing to the growth of healthy families. We should all try to support such charitable institutions.

[Chiropractor Norwood]

Hey John, Congratulations and I wish you every success in your future endeavors.

Good stuff, lots of inspiration. We need more of that in this world.