Since fifth grade, my best friend Akil Clark and I have challenged each other both in school and in the community. We were passionate about reading, and I remember the joy books brought me in my childhood. Regardless of what was going on around me, a good story could t...

Join us as we celebrate the grand opening of Voila Hairsalon! The celebration will be at the Merle Hay Mall on Saturday, November 16th from 1 pm to 3 pm. Spark will be passing out free copies of “Hair Love” by Matthew Cherry to the first 50 visitors. Finally, we’re goi...

Volunteers, Donors, and Advocates:

The amount of support that the Spark Foundation has received from all of you since the inception of this organization is incredible. What started as a simple idea to get more books in the hands of kids who need them has grown into a tr...

Thanks to the help and donations from Federal Home Loan Bank and members of the community, we were able to host our second No-Cost Book Fair for the amazing first-grade students of Monroe Elementary on September 12th.

Thanks to your help, each first-grade student was pr...

The Spark Foundation is proud to announce Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits as or newest community partner for the 2019/20 school year! With over 20,000 team members internationally, 100 of which are based in Iowa, Souther Glazer’s dedication to diversity, inclusion,...

People around the country are using innovative ways to increase confidence and encourage children to read out loud. One elementary school in Roanoke, Wisconsin found the cutest way to do it.

Starting in 2018, Hillcrest Primary School and LEADS Charter School s...

Summer is here and it's time for fun, but playing hard doesn't mean that you can't work hard too! Children reading 20 minutes a day has proven to help them maintain, and even grow, their reading skills.

Students who don't read over the summer lose two months of reading...

Happy Summer 2019 Readers! Spark Foundation is dedicated to providing amazing new books to elementary schools in Des Moines, and soon, across the state of Iowa. For now, we want to share with you some awesome Children's Books to be read with your family, friends, and n...

Spark took a major step forward with our goal of putting free books directly into the hands of students this Thursday as we held our first no-cost book fair. Thanks to the generosity of individual and corporate members of the community, each second grade student at Mou...

In partnership with Scholastic® Book Fairs, the Spark Foundation hosted its first virtual meet and greet with Sandra Markle, author of What If You Had T. Rex Teeth? And Other Dinosaurs Parts. Every second-grade student at River Woods Elementary had the opportunity to p...