Supported Charities

The Greater St. Louis Book Fair is a charitable community service organization that raises funds and provides services to promote education and literacy in the St. Louis Metropolitan area, primarily through the collection and sale of books and other media.

Nursery Foundation Learning Center of St. Louis

For 58 years, proceeds raised by the Greater St. Louis Book Fair have helped support the Nursery Foundation of St. Louis, a multi-cultural day nursery in the city of St. Louis.

Founded in 1947 by Mrs. Frances "Queenie" Schiele, the Nursery Foundation's mission is to provide quality, developmentally appropriate childcare and education to preschool children ages 12 months through five years regardless of their families' ability to pay. It was the first program of its kind in the state of Missouri.

The Nursery Foundation offers comprehensive, high quality early childhood programs in a nurturing environment led by trained and committed staff dedicated to helping each child reach their maximum developmental potential, regardless of what their developmental level may be. Recognizing the importance of family in each child's development, the Nursery Foundation also provides family support programs.

Today, The Nursery Foundation still operates in a facility on the site of its original location, 1916 North Euclid, and is licensed by the State of Missouri Department of Health Bureau of Child Care. Additionally, The Nursery Foundation is accredited by the Missouri Voluntary Accreditation of Early Childhood Education Programs.

2008 Grant Recipients

Greater St. Louis Book Fair has announced more than $45,000 in new grants to support the following innovative programs in the areas of education and literacy:

Access Academies Reading Program

  • Innovative and successful reading program for 4th & 5th grade low income, minority students who struggle in reading & writing
  • 3:1 student-teacher ratio
  • Book Fair will fund the first year of the ACCESS Academies Summer Academy
  • Hundreds of books will be given away

Aim High St. Louis

  • Began in 1991 by faculty members of John Burroughs School; purpose to increase potential of economically disadvantaged youth; Priory added as site in 1997
  • Intensive 5 week summer and Saturday school year program; summer focuses on math, English, SS, Science and Saturdays focuses on community service, cultural enrichment, career exploration
  • Accepted students participate for 4 years.
  • Book Fair will sponsor 4 promising economically disadvantaged students for 1 year

Center for Hearing & Speech - "Speech/language for Low-Income Children"

  • Provide support for the Speech/Language Program to provide early diagnosis and intervention for low-income children
  • After in-depth examinations & designing individualized therapy programs, Book Fair will provide a minimum of 50 therapy sessions

First Book - St. Louis

  • Since it began in St, Louis in 1998, First Book St. Louis has given away over 60,000 books to children in the greater St. Louis area
  • This program reaches preschool and after-school programs tackling illiteracy
  • Children from low-income families will be given 6-12 books in a 12 month period to take and start a library of their own at home.

Holy Trinity Catholic School - "Exciting Summer! Academy Program"

  • Provide tuition for 6 - 7 5th-8th grade low-income children to attend the Lewis & Clark Summer Institute
  • Promote positive and progressive learning opportunities for children who are often overlooked due to their family's lack of financial resources

KidSmart-Tools for Learning - "Angel Character Award"

  • KidSmart operates the only free educational supply store in Missouri providing, at no cost, the community's surplus school supplies and merchandise to teachers of school children in need throughout the school year.
  • Since its inception, KidSmart has distributed over $6 million in educational materials.
  • To encourage and recognize kindergarten through 12th grade, 10 students who have demonstrated outstanding character traits and have become role models and inspirations to their peers at school or in their community are acknowledged
  • The classmates of the recipients benefit from the good deeds of these special students through the awarding of full sets of much needed educational materials, including books.
  • The grant will provide a book for each child in the ten classrooms of the Angel Character Award recipients, as well as a copy of Dr. Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go for each awardee.

Lutheran Social Service of Illinois - "Storybook Project"

  • Program encourages literacy by connecting incarcerated men and women to their children through reading.
  • Host 10 "Storybook Events" at the Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center. Prisoners select a book & the story is recorded. Parents may also record a personal message, a song, or a message of thanks to the child's caregiver. The books and recordings are then mailed to the children.
  • "It not only strengthens the bond between mother and child by giving them voice contact and something children can keep, play, and replay at bedtime, but it also fosters a strong belief in literacy."
  • Approximately 500 prisoners will read and record stories to their children over the course of one year and 750 children will receive a book and recording of their fathers reading to them.

Provident's Literacy Education Enhancement Initiative

  • Provident was founded in 1860 to serve social and economic needs of the community
  • Jennings Operation Excel program will use a computer reading program this spring for the first time
  • Funding to update & upgrade books and magazines and computer site licenses used during the after school and summer programs

St. Louis Community College Foundation "Bridging the Gap"

  • EMT Education Training Program for Underserved African-American males at St. Louis Community College
  • Fund 8 individuals to participate in an education program geared towards African-American males aged 18 and older, who have completed high school but are underemployed and not pursuing a college degree, to continue their education by enrolling in the Emergency Medical Technician career program

Webster University "Student Literacy Corps"

  • Has been in place for 17 years - located on the campus of Webster U.; SLC program trains students to tutor children/teens/adults who have significant reading delays in local schools and nonprofit agencies; tutors work 4-20 hours per week
  • Currently provide tutoring to 22 schools/community organizations
  • Book Fair $ will enable SLC to build its resource library and continue to supply tutors and students with needed books, reading materials and supplies