AL of San Jose’s partnership with Barnes and Noble started 10 years ago when Jerri, a retired public school principal, approached Barnes & Noble (B&N) about the possibility of their donating books to the “Make a Difference Day”, National’s project of having every AL chapter obtain books for children. B&N agreed to take part in the project. From this one contact bloomed a very special partnership. Over the years, Jerri has gone back to B&N with AL of San Jose’s plans to expand our Readers Are Leaders program and provide more books for the children in the underserved communities we serve. Today our partnership with B&N includes huge discounts on book sets for our RAL program, Christmas and January book and toy donations, and an in-store gift wrapping event in December! Jerri’s tenacity and dedication to form a partnership that helps AL of San Jose bring quality books to children in underserved communities has resulted in a model partnership that has endured and even expanded over the last ten years. Our partnership was featured on the National Assistance League website. If you would like to read the article, click here. Thank you, Jerri!