The Power of one woman or man doing the right thing for the right reason, at the right time is the greatest influence in our society.

The history of Verde Valley First Books began in the Spring of 2018 by Peg Schlichtemeier as a 501(c) 3.

The intent was to have age-appropriate books in the homes of four-year-olds in low-income areas of Sedona and the Verde Valley. Based on current demographics, most of the schools in the Verde Valley fall into the Title 1 guidelines for free or reduced  lunch programs, meaning that all these schools are considered low income. 

Twenty-five  volunteer readers go into preschools, daycares, and Head Start centers each month October - April and read the book to the children, interact with them about the story and get them excited about books before entering kindergarten. The BEST part is we give each student a copy of the book and ask their teachers to help them print their name on the sticker. Three-year-olds were included because they are in the classrooms too.

Reading aloud to children increases their comprehension, vocabulary and listening skills 50%. Donations were asked for from every organization and eventually the Arizona Community Foundation got excited about the program. Grants were applied for and received to purchase more books. More schools were included, and more readers volunteered.

Then two horrible events happened, COVID 19 and Peg died unexpectedly in January 2021. Every effort was made to continue delivery of the books to the schools, volunteers were not allowed into the schools. The delivery of books to the schools continued and distribution to food banks to give to the children. In January 2022, volunteers were again into some schools, but the program did not continue as hoped until late 2022.

Two Board members remained and are still on the Board, Creed Ostler and Carolyn Fisher.  Sarah Buck,  Jan Groves and Katherine Mattingly have since joined the team.  All are volunteer Board Members.

Donation in Honor of Peg Schlichtemeier:

Verde Valley First  Books members (L-R) Carolyn Fisher, Creed Ostler, Sarah Buck, and Ernie Schlichtemeier pose with a portion of the over 50 children's books the group donated to the Sedona Public Library in the Village on February 11, 2022.

The donation was made in honor of the group's late founder, Peg Schlichtemeier who passed away suddenly. 

We have kept this program going through tough times; the teachers, students, and parents love and appreciate this program and it is really fun for the readers. We continue to approach new schools and solicit more volunteer readers; we now have 3 readers with therapy dogs who are allowed in some private schools. 

VVFB is now in 18 different schools with a reader volunteer list of 25. The reader is assigned a school and does their own scheduling with the teacher, which allows them to get to know the students and teachers. We give each student and teacher their own book to take home = 540/month - 3780/year. 

There is an army of us trying to help the preschoolers in AZ learn to read because then they can read to learn. VVFB is one of the programs

(others include Imagination Library, Read On AZ, and The Sedona Literacy Center).