Domtar Corp., Montreal, Que., Canada, announced that employee volunteers from the company’s pulp and paper mill in Nekoosa, Wis., USA, this past week visited the local Humke Elementary School to donate and read new books to kindergartners as part of its partnership with First Book, and to plant trees in honor of Earth Week. A Fortune 500 company, Domtar makes a wide variety of everyday products from sustainable wood fiber, such as copy paper and diapers. Domtar’s Nekoosa mill employs nearly 500 people in the local community.

 

Domtar employees from the Nekoosa mill read and donated books to nearly 80 children across five kindergarten classes at Humke Elementary School, then went outside to plant one tree with each class.

 

"Our employees are grateful for the opportunity to share books and plant trees with the Kindergarteners of Humke Elementary School during Earth Week," said Domtar Corporate Responsibility Manager Heather Alverson Stowe. "Our investment in the Nekoosa community reflects two of Domtar’s three pillars of giving—literacy and sustainability. Domtar’s commitment to sustainability takes many forms—from the products we make to the local community service projects our employees support."

 

As part of its Powerful Pages campaign, Domtar has partnered with First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides books to children in need, since 2012 to provide more than half a million dollars in grants to schools and programs in towns that are home to Domtar facilities. Domtar’s grants provide funding to educators to purchase books through the First Book Marketplace, a website available exclusively to First Book programs, and then the school’s children are able to bring home the new books. 

"We’re proud to have provided hundreds of thousands of brand-new books to children from underserved families across North America, in partnership with First Book," said Stowe. "Domtar is committed to promoting literacy by putting books in the hands of children in need in the communities in which we operate—it’s a cause that is close to our hearts and core to our business." 

Kyle Zimmer, First Book president and CEO, said that "access to books is transformational in the lives of our children and the educators who serve them. Domtar’s work with First Book has opened up a world of opportunities to children who might not otherwise have books at home." 

First Book is a nonprofit social enterprise that has distributed more than 100 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from underserved families throughout the U.S. and Canada. By making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis, First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education