Distinguished Benefactor

Target
Target is committed to actively supporting education and recognizes the integral role reading plays in shaping a child's future. In partnership with the United States Department of Education, Target developed its Ready. Sit. Read! national reading program. The program is designed to foster a love of reading among children at an early age. Ready. Sit. Read! includes sponsorship of the Library of Congress "Letters About Literature" national writing contest; support for book festivals across the country, including the National Book Festival; and a partnership with the national non-profit organization Reach Out and Read. Target gives back more than $2 million a week to its local communities through grants and special programs. Since opening its first store in 1962, Target has partnered with nonprofit organizations, guests and team members to help meet community needs. For more information on Ready. Sit. Read!, visit Target.com/readysitread.

Charter Sponsors

AT&T
For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services. With a deeply embedded and corporate-wide tradition for public service and social responsibility, the AT&T Foundation invests in projects that serve the needs of people in communities throughout the nation. Initiatives which leverage technology in innovative ways, as well as those in which AT&T employees are actively involved, are of particular interest to the corporation. For more information on the AT&T Foundation and its activities, please visit the web site.

The Amend Group
Based in Dallas, Texas, and founded in 1989, The Amend Group is a professional services organization whose passion is integrating comprehensive brokerage, project management, design and construction services in a process we call Program Management. We have completed a multitude of projects across the United States and in Canada, ranging from lease transactions of a few hundred square feet to master-planned campus facilities of over two million square feet.

The Amend Group has a long history of promoting social awareness in the communities we serve. The Company recognizes and accepts its responsibility to help preserve and protect quality of life for current and future generations. For this reason, The Amend Group has made a firm commitment to remaining a valued member of the community by actively supporting many worthy organizations. The Amend Group remains firmly committed to promoting literacy through the joy of reading and is proud to continue its ongoing support of the National and Texas Book festivals.

The Washington Post
Each year, The Washington Post, through its community outreach programs, demonstrates its commitment to the Washington metropolitan area. As an active involved corporate citizen, The Post partners with a host of organizations that strive to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. These partnerships help to educate area children, provide basic health and human service needs, uplift spirits and spur creativity and imagination. The Post' community outreach efforts focus on many segments of the region; however, supporting literacy and education is the cornerstone of our community relations initiatives. That is why we are proud to be a Charter Sponsor of the Fifth Annual National Book Festival, celebrating America's storytellers.

Patrons

AARP
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to making life better for people 50 and over. AARP provides information and resources; engages in legislative, regulatory and legal advocacy; assists members in serving their communities; and offers a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for our members. These include AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, its monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, its quarterly newspaper in Spanish; NRTA Live & Learn, its quarterly newsletter for 50+ educators; and its Web site. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Freddie Mac
Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned company established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and nearly four million renters in America. As one of the largest corporate funders in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Freddie Mac and the Freddie Mac Foundation have invested nearly $250 million in nonprofits serving the community.

The James Madison Council
The James Madison Council is a private-sector group created to serve as the Library of Congress’s primary link to the business community. The first private-sector advisory body in the Library’s history, the Council consists of public-spirited citizens determined to help the nation receive the full benefits of the Library’s incomparable educational, scientific, technological, and cultural resources.

National Endowment for the Arts
Sponsor of this year's Poetry Pavilion, the National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts—both new and established—bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

Contributors

Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest bookseller, has more than 820 stores in 50 states under the Barnes & Noble and B. Dalton names. The company is a 2005 National Book Festival Contributor Sponsor. Thanks to the support of Barnes & Noble, this year's Festival will house two book sales tents loaded with the most recent works for each festival author. Be sure to stop by before heading over to the book signing area.

Educate, Inc.

Half Price Books
To promote family literacy, Half Price Books (www.halfpricebooks.com) is launching the 11th edition of its children's storybook "Say Good Night to Illiteracy" at 2 p.m. in the Let's Read America Pavilion. Half Price Books will provide complimentary copies of the book to children, while supplies last. Great for the entire family, this colorful bedtime storybook, which supports literacy groups across the country, contains 20 original stories and poems that are paired with specially commissioned illustrations. Also, stop by throughout the day for stickers, pencils, bookmarks, and to meet BW, the Half Price Books Bookworm. Half Price Books is a sponsor of the 2005 National Book Festival.

NBA/WNBA
The NBA's "Read to Achieve" program is a year-round campaign to help young people develop a life-long love for reading and encourage adults to read regularly to children. Reaching an estimated 50 million children a year, "Read to Achieve" is the most extensive educational outreach initiative in the history of professional sports. In addition to being supported by all 29 NBA teams, 16 WNBA teams, the eight teams that make up the NBA's new minor league, the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), "Read to Achieve" is supported by the NBA's officials, parents and wives of players organizations, and the NBA Players Association and Retired Players Association.

PBS
PBS is a private, nonprofit media enterprise that serves the nation's 349 public noncommercial television stations, reaching nearly 90 million people each week. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is the leading provider of educational materials for K-12 teachers, and offers a broad array of educational services for adult learners, PBS' premier kids' TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online, continues to be parents' and teachers' most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at pbs.org, the leading dot-org Web site on the Internet. PBS is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

Marshall & Dee Ann Payne

Penguin Group (USA)
Don't miss the Pearson area with Penguin Group (USA) and Jumpstart for Young Children exhibits where you can learn the most effective way to read to kids; have your photo taken with our life-size Penguin; as well as participate in various learning activities and craft projects including one-to-one reading, making book markers, and story-time with the Penguin! The reading method demonstration and group readings will take place from 10:00 to 10:30 am; 11:00 - 11:30 am; and 3:00 - 3:30 pm - all immediately followed by literacy based activities and photos with the Penguin.

Scholastic Inc.
Scholastic’s commitment to social responsibility and educational outreach is demonstrated by its far-reaching partnerships that address the most critical issues facing children, parents and teachers, with a particular emphasis on reading and literacy. Since 1999, the Scholastic Book Grants Program has donated more than 10 million children’s books to non-profit organizations that serve children and families in need. Scholastic works with the National Urban League (NUL), on the Read and RiseTM campaign to help build the reading skills of African American children. To date, over a million homes have been reached through the Read and Rise: Parent Circles workshop series, the Read and Rise: Preparing Our Children For a Lifetime of Success literacy guide and the Read and Rise magazine. Scholastic developed Words Travel™, the first national literacy and family-strengthening program for incarcerated parents and their children, through a unique partnership with Volunteers of America. The mission of the program is to connect incarcerated parents with their children through reading books. Words Travel is currently being piloted at 5 prison facilities nationwide with plans for expansion in 2004.