Wendy Moore

Wendy Moore uses her painfully modest, often challenging, beginnings to fuel a passion to help kids have access to brand new books of their own, with the hope that through books other kids would develop dreams, wishes, fantasies and goals that lead them to a better life.

Moore grew up in rural Illinois in a very economically challenged family. Her dad was a coal miner and her mom worked in a local cafeteria. One of five daughters, she knew she would grow right out of that small town and she dreamed of bigger things through the books she read. She recalls making her plans and setting her goals through the inspiration of one book after another. She learned about the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center from a children’s book and she made it a goal to go to New York and see the tree.

Today, Moore provides kids, especially those from low-income families with new books.

Over the years she has hosted a First Book Virtual Book Drive to raise funds to buy new books for kids at Title I schools and uses her business as a host site to collected donated school supplies. She mobilizes her neighborhood association and book club to inspire others in the same vein.

Moore’s volunteer efforts raised $1,200 that provided 420 elementary school aged kids with a brand new copy of their own of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ as a part of her community’s back to school celebration.