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 serving as a Distinguished Benefactor for the National Book Festival; a partnership with the national non-profit organization Reach Out and Read; and Target's very own Parent/Child Book Club. 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
AT&T is the largest telecommunications company in the United States and one of the largest in the world. AT&T serves millions of customers around the globe. It delivers an unsurpassed portfolio of traditional and IP-based voice, broadband Internet, data transport, wireless and video services.

AT&T is committed to strengthening the communities it serves. Last year, AT&T contributed more than $101 million through corporate, employee and foundation giving programs to enhance education, community vitality and technology access.

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. They 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 entered the family entertainment industry and is currently in the process of developing innovative, state-of-the-art bowling/family entertainment centers across the United States.

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 Sixth Annual National Book Festival.

Patrons

AARP
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. We produce AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, our monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, our bimonthly magazine in Spanish and English; NRTA Live & Learn, our quarterly newsletter for 50+ educators;
and our website, www.aarp.org. The AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The James Madison Council
The James Madison Council is a private-sector group created to serve as the Library of Congress' 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 the festival'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

Marshall and Dee Ann Payne

NBA/WNBA
NBA Cares is the league's global community outreach initiative that builds
on the NBA's long tradition of addressing important social issues. Over the
next five years, the league, players and teams will raise and contribute
$100 million for charity, donate more than 1 million hours of hands-on
service to communities around the world and build more than 100 places
where kids and families can live, learn and play. NBA Cares works with
internationally-recognized youth-serving programs that support education,
youth and family development, and health-related causes including UNICEF,
Reading Is Fundamental, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of
America, Charities Aid Foundation, Feed the Children and many others.

PBS

Penguin Group (USA)

Scholastic Inc.

Friends

Institute of Museum and Library Services

National Endowment for the Humanities

A Note of Thanks

The Junior League of Washington is once again providing hundreds of volunteers to support the National Book Festival and the promotion of reading and literacy.