Pizza Hut® and BOOK IT!® Announce Big Book Giveaway Winners

DALLAS, Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pizza Hut and the BOOK IT! Program have announced the winners of the second annual BOOK IT! Big Book Giveaway. The giveaway challenges Pizza Hut® restaurants nationwide to submit creative donation ideas for a chance to distribute 500 books in their communities in celebration of National Young Readers Week from November 7-11, 2011.  

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110609/CG16913LOGO-b)

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111101/CG97664)

"I am inspired by the enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated by our restaurant team members during the BOOK IT! Big Book Giveaway," said Shelley Morehead, BOOK IT! Program Director, "National Young Readers Week is all about bringing out the fun in reading.  Our restaurants have developed creative ways to distribute books to children in ways that will bring joy to many deserving communities across the country."

For the BOOK IT! Big Book Giveaway, over 6,000 Pizza Hut restaurants nationwide were invited to submit ideas on how they would distribute 500 books to children in their communities. Each entry completed a form describing how the donation of books would impact the community and support literacy tied to the BOOK IT! Program. Many of the winners are hosting celebrations for the recipients and local families to award the books.

From the received submissions for the BOOK IT! Big Book Giveaway, there were twenty Pizza Hut® locations selected from across the country. Highlighted below are a few of the winning Giveaway Concepts:

• Brookville, Ohio: Host a parade at Children's Medical Center with Pizza Hut volunteers wearing book character costumes while distributing books to the hospital patients.
• Hoover, Alabama: Donate books to elementary schools in rural Tuscaloosa County, which was dramatically damaged from this season's horrendous tornado season.
• Houston, Texas: Host a Pizza Hut celebration at Travis Elementary and honor the " Mission: Go Travis Book Club:" a group of students committed to finding fellow students who do not have books at home and providing them opportunities to read by sharing their own books and creating a club library. Local celebrities, faculty, community members and even famous book characters will attend the event!  
• Joplin, Missouri: Donate books to schools that lost many things during the tornado season.  The restaurants plan to hold a kids night Halloween function in conjunction with the book donations and give all attending children a Halloween goodie bag including a book.
• Marysville, Michigan: Donate books to an elementary school in Marysville, MI, as it is a "Gateway to Learning" for its students.  To present the books, the school staff would provide each teacher with a Pizza Hut® / BOOK IT!® reading tracker dry erase board and discuss the importance of reading and support the core values of the school.

Founded in 1989 by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, National Young Readers Week is an annual event that encourages young readers to get excited about reading. Events are hosted in schools across the country, where local officials, sports figures, public safety officers, parents and other "celebrities" from the community share their favorite stories with students to help reinforce the importance of reading and to encourage reading for enjoyment.

About BOOK IT!

In 1985, Pizza Hut established the BOOK IT! National Reading Incentive Program to motivate children to read more and help them develop a lifelong love of reading. The BOOK IT! Program is a six-month program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. For more information, visit www.bookitprogram.com.

About Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut, America's Favorite Pizza, delivers more pizza, pasta and wings than any other restaurant. The only pizza company to be named a top ten franchise in 2009 by Entrepreneur Magazine, Pizza Hut began 50 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, and today operates nearly 10,000 restaurants in more than 90 countries. Pizza Hut, Inc. is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM). To check out what's new at Pizza Hut visit PizzaHut.com.

Media Contact
Luke DeRouen
214.727.3708
[email protected]

SOURCE Pizza Hut