The Foundation is the brainchild of the Children's Literature community of New Orleans - authors, artists, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and lovers of children's books. The Foundation recognizes Coleen Salley and her forty-plus years of promoting children's books and their authors and illustrators of Louisiana, nationally and internationally. Tthe Foundation honors the memory of Bill Morris, one of the pioneers in advocating author/artist visitations to schools and libraries.
The Mission of the Foundation is to promote an appreciation and love of books and reading by providing the enriching experience of meeting and hearing authors and illustrators of children's books.
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 Coleen Salley at the 2004 launch of the Foundation with illustrator Lisa Cohen and writer Whitney Stewart |
foundation news
Grant Awards
Over the past couple of years, the Foundation has awarded 9 grants to impoverished schools to book an author visit. The purpose of the grants are to promote an appreciation and love of books and reading by providing the enriching experience of meeting an author and hearing them speak. The Foundation also provided funds to purchase the author's books for the library and the visiting classrooms. For the 2005-2006 school year, the following Louisiana schools were awarded a grant for an author visit:
- Ross Elementary in Crowley hosted Sharon Arms Doucet
- Catherine Strehle in Avondale hosted Pat Austin
- Turner Elementary/Middle School in Shreveport hosted Tad Hardy
- Bissonet Plaza in Metairie hosted Jean Cassels
- Fenton Elementary in Fenton hosted Sharon Arms Doucet
- Franklin Jr. High School in Franklin hosted Sharon Arms Doucet
 For the 2007-2008 school year, the Foundation has focused awarding an author visit grant to schools in and around New Orleans in an attempt to alleviate some of the extreme effects felt by Hurricane Katrina. The schools receiving grants in this school year are:
- Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary in New Orleans will host illustrator Lisa Cohen
- C.T. Janet Elementary in Marrero will host Freddi Evans and Anita Prieto
- AC Alexander in Kenner will host Jean Cassels
Foundation Gives Away over $50,000 worth of children's books!
 In May, 2007, Coleen Salley decided she wanted to unload a storage room filled with children’s books that she had collected over a period of 40 years. Fortunately, this storage facility was located in a part of uptown New Orleans that did not flood during Hurricane Katrina. The destruction of the hurricane destroyed many school libraries throughout Southern Louisiana. The need was great. So on a beautiful day in May, the storage room was made available to school librarians to help rebuild their stock of books. Librarians came from many surrounding parishes, including hard hit St. Bernard Parish. In the course of a day, the storage room was emptied of over 3,400 children’s books valued at over $50,000.
Photo: Foundation volunteer Jean Nebel gets the books ready for the Foundation donation event.
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