‘Magazine publishing powerhouses and reading advocates team to inspire schools to join global magazine recycling initiative for literacy’. The press release may have a long headline, but the cause is a worthy one.
   Since 2005, Lucire has supported the initiatives of MagazineLiteracy.org, aimed at promoting literacy to children initially in the US, through the use of magazines. It makes sense to me: as a child I preferred flicking through magazines to books.
   As it is Children’s Magazine Month, among others, MagazineLiteracy.org is encouraging the recycling of magazines, not into pulp, but as things that can be passed on to needy kids in your area.
   In the press release’s words: ‘The magazines recycled by school children in their classrooms and school libraries will be given to other children and families in nearby homeless and domestic violence shelters, and to food pantries for distribution inside bags of groceries. Local organizers will create and decorate KinderHarvest bins from recycled boxes, and post stories and photographs about their magazine recycling projects online at childmagmonth.org.’
   Other organizations behind the venture include the AEP, the Magazine Publishers of America, the International Reading Association, the American Association of School Librarians, Get Caught Reading and the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP). Dr Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, Auras Design, Mint Advertising, Knowledge Marketing and ThinkHost join us at Lucire as additional supporters.
   If you get a chance, please do blog about this in your spaces as the press release was not the sexiest, and literacy can take a back seat in the public’s mind sometimes.