Bessie's 3rd Annual Cashless Book Fair!

**Update!! We have surpassed our goal! Thank you Boston Properties and all of our generous donors!**

Help fund the Bessie Cashless Book Fair! Bessie Carmichael PK-8th is the only public school in SF's South of Market (Soma). Bessie is home to the highest number of homeless students, at least 80% of the students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and all students are performing below standard on English Language Arts standardized tests. But there's hope!

 

"Children growing up in homes with at least twenty books get three years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parent's education, occupation, and class. Evans, M. D., Kelley, J., Sikora, J., & Treiman, D. J. (2010). Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 28(2), 171-197."

 

Simply putting books into children's hands can increase their literacy, improve their academic performance, improve their performance on standardized tests and increase the likelihood of them graduating high school. This is our Third Annual Cashless Book Fair! The intent behind our cashless Book Fair is to take away the barriers and stigma of students not being able to participate because they don't have funds or the inequity of some students being able to purchase more than others.

 

We have already raised half of the funds to make this happen! You can help by sponsoring One Student for $25! Or 10 for $250! Or 100 for $2500! The Bessie Book Fair will take place February 28 – March 4th and each student will have the opportunity to choose their own books without the worry of how they will pay for them. The Bessie Book Fair is sponsored by the Soma Youth Collaborative on behalf of the students at Bessie Carmichael.