The walls of the Page Ahead Children's' Literacy Program in downtown Seattle are covered with words of revelation from children from all over King County who have recently realized the value literacy can have in their lives.

"We fly to our dreams with books," wrote one child. Expressions like these often make the difficult mission of affecting a child's' life worthwhile for the staffers at this non profit organization.

With offices in Spokane, Olympia, Snohomish, Yakima, and center of operations in Seattle, Page Ahead has provided more than one million new books to over 400,000 children for the past 15 years. Through their different programs, and collaborations with educational and civic organizations, the group has distributed more than 22,000 books to about 7,500 students at West Seattle elementary schools, said Donna MacLeod, marketing coordinator at Page Ahead.

AmeriCorps volunteers, Volunteers in Service to America Leaders and other program coordinators are the brains behind this organization. They set up fund-raisers, develop workshops and organize book drives to help parents discover the importance of reading to their children and to promote awareness of literacy needs within communities.

For many of these kids, the books they get from Page Ahead are the first books they have ever owned or had access to outside of schoolrooms, said Volunteers in Service to America leader and community partnerships coordinator Taraji Belgacem. Many of the children do not go to libraries and are not read to at home by their parents, she added.

The non profit is getting set to hold its annual statewide fund-raiser, Book Plates, on August 18. Local restaurants agree to donate a minimum of 10 percent of their profits that day to Page Ahead.

LeAnne Chow is events and volunteer coordinator for the Book Plates campaign.

"This year, forty-three restaurants are participating across Washington," said Chow.

Both Junctions in West Seattle were targeted for participation for Book Plates, she said, and two have joined; Amante Pizza and Pasta and Angelina's Trattoria.

This year Page Ahead's 10,000 Books for 10,000 Kids campaign supplied children in West Seattle with new books to read for the summer.

"Our goal is to make sure that West Seattle children have books at home to read throughout the summer- especially in light of research that shows that the reading abilities of student's from low-income families decreases over the summer months," said Sam Whiting, Page Ahead's executive director.

Community members can help Page Ahead in their efforts by holding their own book drives. Assistant manager of the Curves gym on California Avenue, Elizabeth Eggers, held a book drive for Page Ahead on Aug. 1.

"I really wanted to do this because reading is a skill you need for the rest of your life," said Eggers. " My mom read to me since I was in the womb; it has always been an essential part of my life."

Eggers said she hopes she made her book drive "easy to understand and participate in" in hopes that her actions inspire others in the community to be active in enhancing the lives of West Seattle children in need.

Belgacem and her co-workers value motivated volunteers like Eggers who show active involvement with the program goals.

"She is beyond interested," said Belgacem, " she is invested, which makes for a most successful event."

Those children eligible for Page Ahead services live near or below the poverty line and have lower reading scores than their peers, said Belgacem. These families often must use their financial resources for food, shelter and other necessities, not for books.

The organization works on the findings of studies that have shown those who lack exposure to reading early in life are often faced with struggles in other areas, such as low self-esteem, academic problems and are at higher risk for substance abuse problems. However, if a child can read at grade level or above by the third grade, they tend to continue to read at grade level throughout their academic career.

Since its inception in 1990, Page Ahead has sought to lessen these negative effects by promoting literacy for at-risk children. The program was developed by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's "Leadership Tomorrow" program. The group raised money for a coordinator and set up its own office in 1994.

Today Page Ahead's staff has grown to include ten individuals and an 18 member Board of Directors.

Belgacem said they would love for Page Ahead to become a household name, such as organizations like United Way, who often designate contributions to Page Ahead. This spring Page Ahead received a grant from United Way Venture funds to expand their Family Involvement programs in South King County.

Leeta Scott is coordinator for the Family Involvement program and said its purpose is to "provide families with different ways reading can be used, so they don't have to look at it from just one perspective."

Through a partnership with KCTS, Seattle's public television station, Scott concentrates on promoting literacy through a media standpoint.

The program attempts to stress that media shouldn't be used as a babysitter, said Scott.

"We use their workshop, Read to Me, to provide media literacy and wise use of the television with children," she said.

Scott also coordinates story times at Fairmont Park elementary, High Point Head Start, Highland Park, and Sanislo elementary schools where she incorporates a simple craft with the theme of the book.

"It's a more holistic way to promote literacy," she said.

Scott said she hopes the activity enriches the reading experience for both the child and the parent since the goal here is to encourage parents to read with their children at home.

Page Ahead receives their new books from a number of sources. Publishers and authors donate about 15,000 books a year. Corporations and Community groups collect about 40,000 new books for Page Ahead through book drives, and 90,000 new books are ordered at 50-75 percent off regular price through vendors.

Partner sites then request books from Page Ahead based on the age and reading level of each child.

Books are heavily screened for content before distributed. Page Ahead doesn't accept books that are religious or possibly offensive to different cultural backgrounds, said Chow. We want to ensure that the books are appropriate, she added.

By providing the kids with books to read, Page Ahead can address literacy issues in an inexpensive and simple way, said Belgacem, and hopefully instill, in the parents and the children, understanding and appreciation for the important role literacy can play in their lives.