We are pleased to announce that David Bruce Smith’s Grateful American Foundation and WETA’s AdLit.org have formed a partnership to support adolescent readers’ literacy development and historical education. AdLit.org is a national multimedia project that provides educators and families resources to support adolescent readers and writers. The Grateful American Foundation is dedicated to restoring enthusiasm in American history for young people and adults.

“We are grateful for this gift from David Bruce Smith’s foundation underscoring his belief in the important work WETA’s AdLit does to foster education and literacy,” said Sharon Percy Rockefeller, WETA President and Chief Executive Officer. “David’s generosity reflects his parents’ longtime support of WETA. For more than 40 years, Clarice and Robert H. Smith extended their philanthropy to WETA Classical, PBS NewsHour’s coverage of the arts, and to The WETA Capital Campaign: Building the Future.”

Thanks to this new partnership, WETA will conduct interviews with Grateful American Book Prize award winners; present the interviews on AdLit.org and YouTube; and to relaunch AdLit’s “Unlocking the Past” project. Unlocking the Past celebrates careful reading, critical thinking, thoughtful debate, and learning about what life was like in the past. It also gives teachers tools to prompt students to think, question, and behave like historians.

WETA is the flagship public media station in the national capital area. WETA is the second-largest producing station for the PBS system in the United States and home to news and public affairs programs including PBS NewsHour and Washington Week; films by production partners Ken Burns and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; and specials including In Performance at the White House and the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. WETA creates a trove of trusted resources, including the Learning Media websites ReadingRockets.org, ColorinColorado.org, LDOnLine.org, AdLit.org, StartWithABook.org and BrainLine.org, which provide resources surrounding child development, literacy, education, the brain and mental health for educators, caregivers, military service members, veterans, and families in these critical areas. WETA serves the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia with content that educates and inspires on five television channels: WETA PBS, WETA UK, WETA Metro, WETA World; and WETA PBS Kids; on weta.org; and on the Classical WETA radio station and at classicalweta.org. More information on WETA programs and services is available at weta.org.