Award-winning poet Billy Collins has been chosen as the 2011 Selected Author for Bexley Community Book Club (BCBC), an initiative of the Bexley Education Foundation (BEF).

Collins, a former U.S. Poet Laureate who is a driving force behind making contemporary poems relevant to students, will appear in Bexley on April 20, 2011 where he will spend the day with students, dine with patrons and present a public lecture and readings of some of his works. A number of exciting events in the months leading up to Collins’s arrival are also in the works; those will be announced in August.

No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal as Billy Collins. His work has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Scholar.Collins sees his poetry as “a form of travel writing” and considers humor “a door into the serious.” It is a door that many thousands of readers have opened. His readings are usually standing room only, and his audience—buoyed by frequent appearances on National Public Radio—includes people of all backgrounds and ages. His last three collections of poems have broken sales records for poetry.

The Bexley Community Book Club, now in its fourth year, is a unique community-based vehicle for promoting lifelong learning and reading for both students and adults in Bexley and beyond. Past BCBC selected authors include Ann Patchett (2010), Tobias Wolff (2009) and Pete Hamill (2008).

Proceeds from Bexley Community Book Club, derived from sponsorships, ticket sales and book sales, will go to the Bexley Education Foundation to support projects and programs in the Bexley City School District.

Award-winning writer Ann Patchett recently spent the day meeting with students, community members and book lovers as the culmination of the Bexley Community Book Club’s yearlong initiative to promote lifelong learning.

See a slideshow of photo of this event and learn more about Ann Patchett here.

On behalf of The Bexley Education Foundation Board, I'd like to welcome you to our website. We hope it will encourage you to learn more about our organization and our mission to provide extraordinary educational opportunities for Bexley students.

The 2008-2009 school year was an exciting one at BEF. Here are some highlights:

BEF awarded $37,819 in classroom grants last year along with additional payments of $230,000 to complete our funding of the state-of-the-art SMART Board technology. Recent classroom grants include a musical collaboration with Columbus Jazz Orchestra, an online library of 350 digital reference books that can be accessed by the entire community, a distance learning project connecting elementary students with a naturalist in the Trinidad jungle, and a computer-numeric-controlled machine for middle school technology classes.

Bexley Community Book Club 2009 Selected Author Tobias Wolff drew a record crowd. We are excited to welcome our 2010 Selected Author Ann Patchett on April 14. Patchett's international bestseller Bel Canto is among her critically acclaimed and broadly popular works the community will explore in a variety of events throughout the year.

Maryland Art Specialist Lisa Viney joined a group of outstanding educators when selected as the 2009 Robert A. Glick Bexley Educator of the Year last May. Also in the spring, Bexley High School students heard from firefighters, paramedics and E.R. physicians as part of the annual Dr. Judah Folkman Scientist in Residence Program. Twenty-five BHS sophomores and juniors completed the 2009 Pete Grimes Leadership Bexley curriculum facilitated by community members. Finally, BEF's 2009 BRAVO! event raised more than $95,000. We expect another crowd on February 27, 2010 when BRAVO! takes over the DSW home office site for its 15th annual event.

Our annual fund campaign is in full swing, led by Tom Heilman and Bill Porter, and we are now accepting online donations. Please explore the website to learn more about our many programs. We look forward to hearing from you.

~ Linda Kass, 2009 - 2010 Chair, Board of Governors