Rooted in Reading: Empowering Stories. Empowering Futures.

✊🏾 Why This Campaign Matters

We’re not just handing out books—we’re planting legacies. At Reading With Mrs. Richardson, we believe literacy is a revolutionary act. In Black and Brown communities across Memphis, access to culturally relevant books is still far too rare. We’re flipping that script.

But we can't do it alone.

Your donation today supports:

• 📕 8,000+ books distributed across the Mid-South—diverse, powerful, and student-approved

• 🧠 Knowledge Keepers, our after-school tutoring rooted in representation, critical thinking, and joy

• 🌱 Rooted Readers, a digital and physical library of stories that look like our kids and sound like their lives

• 🖥️ New technology, student incentives, and storytelling tools that keep our youth engaged in reading

• 🎤 Oral History Project capturing the stories of Black educators who paved the way

• 🎨 Creative workshops combining literacy with arts, comics, and performance

• 💥 Youth Expo 2025, a celebration of student authors, artists, and voices

This isn’t charity. This is change.

🙌🏽 How You Can Help

1. Donate what you can. Every dollar gets books and support into the hands of kids who need them most.

2. Join the squad. Start a peer-to-peer fundraiser. Be a literacy champion in your circles.

3. Share our story. Spread the word on social media using #RootedInReading.

4. Sponsor a shelf. $100 stocks a classroom with culturally relevant books.

5. Sponsor a student. $250 supports 10 hours of after-school literacy support.

🔥 Perks & Incentives

• $25 – Get a digital shoutout and our “Stories Grow Strong Roots” e-postcard

• $50 – Get a literacy-themed vinyl sticker pack

• $100 – Sponsor a shelf in a local classroom + get your name on our donor wall

• $250+ – Receive a limited-edition “Rooted Readers” tote and feature in our year-end report

• $500+ – VIP invite to our Youth Expo 2025 & private screening of the Oral History Project

🎥 What’s Next

We’ve distributed 8,000+ books and logged 2,000+ hours of digital reading—and we’re just getting started. With your help, we’ll reach more schools, publish more student stories, and take literacy beyond the classroom.

📽️ Stay tuned for mini-documentaries, live interviews, and behind-the-scenes access to our work every week during the campaign!

💬 Closing Message

Representation in literature isn't optional—it's essential.
We’re raising readers, writers, thinkers, and change-makers.
Stand with us. Be part of the movement.
Let’s get Memphis reading—together.