Bergen County Jaguar-Land Rover Show Commitment to Literacy, Donate 10K Books to Children

Press release:

The Tata group of companies, represented by Tata Sons and the British luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover, NA, announced a holiday gift of 10,000 new books to New Jersey school children ages 8-10.

Along with the nonprofit social enterprise First Book, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Sons presented 278 books to over 130 third and fourth grade students at Jackson Avenue School in Hackensack where they hosted a reading celebration on Dec. 17. All together, the gift of 10,000 books from Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Sons was distributed to 61 schools and programs throughout Northern New Jersey and New York.

As part of “Tata Engage,” a volunteering campaign designed to encourage Tata’s global workforce to donate time and expertise to help community members in need, over 20 employees from Jaguar Land Rover’s North American headquarters in Mahwah and Tata Sons volunteered to participate in the event. Employees shared the new books with the children during a one hour reading session. Each student received a new book to add to their personal library.

In addition to “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” by Jeff Kinney, some of the other titles donated to Jackson Ave School included: “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan, “Capoeira: Game! Dance! Martial Art!” by George Ancona, “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson, “Pocket Genius: Earth” by DK Publishing and “Pocket Genius: Science” by DK Publishing.

“We can boost children’s learning potential by making books an integral part of their daily lives,” said James Shapiro, Resident Director, North America at Tata Sons Limited. “This holiday season, we thought one of the best ways we could give back to our community was to improve access to books. We hope our gift of 10,000 new books to students in the north New Jersey region will inspire a lifelong love of reading and help build a foundation for stronger educational achievement in the schools.”

“We are proud to partner with Tata Sons and our parent company, Tata Motors, to give the gift of reading to students here in our home state of New Jersey,” said Joe Eberhardt, President and CEO, Jaguar Land Rover, NA. “By supporting First Book and initiatives like the reading party, we are investing in each student’s future success and their ability to achieve their goals.

”First Book is thrilled to support Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Sons in bringing the joy of reading to children in their local communities this holiday season,” said Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First Book. “Thanks to their generosity, both the holidays and the future will surely be brighter for young readers in New Jersey.”

Jackson Avenue School received a book donation from the Tata group of companies in October of 2009, making this donation their second gift from the group. Tata established its partnership with First Book in the United States in December 2007 and has since provided close to 350,000 new books, valued at approximately $2 million to children across the U.S. and Canada.

Photo #1:

Jackson Avenue Students holding up their new books with Stefanie Schiavello of Jaguar Land Rover. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Jaguar Land Rover)

Photo #2:

Students of Jackson Avenue School listening to Stefanie Schiavello of Jaguar Land Rover read from one of the newly donated books. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Jaguar Land Rover)