Boeing teams to deliver 400,000 books to rural Asian libraries
Published 8:21 pm Wednesday, November 28, 2007
EVERETT — A Boeing Co. jet will take off from Everett’s Paine Field today carrying unusual cargo: 400,000 books for libraries in Asia.
The 777-300 Extended Range jet, dubbed Literacy One, will deliver books on behalf of Boeing, Cathay Pacific Airways, Room to Read and Scholastic Inc. The four have joined forces to increase literacy in Asia. Students in Seattle lent a hand by raising money to buy books.
The literacy effort is the brainchild of former Microsoft executive John Wood, who founded Room to Read. Wood left his job with Microsoft after a trek through Nepal exposed him to the lack of books in rural schools in the region. Seven years later, Room to Read has established 5,000 libraries, built 287 schools and distributed 3 million books.
“I delivered my first load of books to a rural children’s school in Nepal on a yak,” Wood said. “Never could I have imagined that seven years later we would be working with these three blue-chip companies to fly hundreds of thousands of children’s books across the Pacific on a new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. This really is a ‘sky’s the limit’ moment for Room to Read.”
Wood will be on hand during a ceremony at the Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour at Paine Field. Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson officially proclaimed today to be Literacy One Day.
After the ceremony, Literacy One, a new Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, will fly to Hong Kong and continue on to other Room to Read libraries in Asia.
Room to Read will honor 12 students from Lakeside School in Seattle, who raised $650,000 at a fundraising dinner they produced entirely on their own. The students will share personal stories of their connection to Room to Read’s mission.
Also on hand will be Scholastic’s lovable Clifford the Big Red Dog and supporters of Room to Read’s initiatives. Students participating in the Literacy One Challenge, a year-long fundraising campaign in the United States and Hong Kong to raise funds on behalf of their peers in the developing world, will be recognized for their efforts at take-off and landing ceremonies on both sides of the Pacific.
