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The Sandburg Society
We all have special library memories—fond recollections of the sense of discovery and freedom that accompanied the joy of reading. Through gifts of $1000 or more to the Chicago Public Library Foundation, The Sandburg Society members continue to make a measurable difference in the lives of Chicago's families.
The Sandburg Society are special friends of the Chicago Public Library who love reading and ideas and support the freedom of all Chicagoans to read, learn, discover and connect to their world and their community.
Throughout the year, The Sandburg Society members are guests for intimate evenings with authors, including Bernard Lewis, The Atlantic Monthly's Jim Fallows, Vanity Fair's Bob Colacello and Arthur Golden, writer of the best-selling Memoirs of a Geisha. The Sandburg Society members also get behind the scenes tours of the treasures hidden in the Library's special collections and priority reserved seating for SRO events with authors such as David McCullough, Amy Tan and John Irving.
Here are just a few ways your The Sandburg Society membership will help create new library memories:
- Research shows that children who participate in Summer Reading Programs maintain, and frequently improve, their reading levels. Last summer, 44,560 children read 1,017,978 books, the first time the number of books read during the Summer Reading Program exceeded one million.
- Teachers in the Library provide after-school homework assistance to youngsters in many of Chicago's neediest communities. More than a half million children received help with homework and school projects at our 79 branch libraries this past year.
- Get Wild About Reading assists parents and caregivers of pre school-age children in developing early literacy—the building block of life-long learning and achievement.
- Tens of thousands of Chicagoans came together in reading and discussion of contemporary issues through the award-winning One Book, One Chicago initiative. Other innovative partnerships bring financial literacy and health information to adults within their own communities.
Maureen Dwyer Smith and Robert A. Wislow are co-chairs of The Sandburg Society.
