Reading, Writing and Revs - Toyota and National Center for Family Literacy Celebrate Family Literacy Teacher of the Year and the New Sienna Minivan

LONG BEACH, Calif., March 16 -- Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) U.S.A., Inc., in partnership with the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), today donated a new Toyota Sienna minivan to Joellyn (Jody) Lintzenich, the 2003 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year. The presentation was made to Ms. Lintzenich at the 12th annual National Conference on Family Literacy in Long Beach.

Toyota and NCFL celebrated the 12th anniversary of their partnership and the March 2003 launch of the newly-redesigned minivan by presenting the Princeton, Indiana-built Sienna to Ms. Lintzenich of Haywood Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Seeing families come to our family literacy program with a strong desire to succeed is what motivates me," said Ms. Lintzenich. "My work is so rewarding watching these parents and their kids go forward with the skills they need to make a better life for themselves."

While she has spent a total of 25 years in education, Ms. Lintzenich has dedicated the last 13 years of her career to teaching children and their parents at Haywood. Five years ago, she created the Haywood family literacy program with a grant from the Toyota Families in Schools (TFS) program.

"It is with a great deal of pride that NCFL has named Jody Lintzenich as the 2003 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year," said Sharon Darling, NCFL president and founder. "It is the mission of the National Center for Family Literacy, in partnership with Toyota, to support families across the country as they come to school together to learn side by side. This is such an honor for Jody and for family literacy."

Since 1991, Toyota and NCFL have forged successful programs to promote family literacy in the U.S. The programs are based on parents and their children learning together, breaking the cycle of under-education that can be handed down from generation to generation.

"You've provided the key to success for so many people, so we'd like to present you with a key of your own. We're hopeful your Sienna will be a vehicle of change, and you will continue to be a vision of hope," said TMS Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, James E. Press in presenting the keys to the Nashville family literacy educator.

Twelve years ago, Toyota and NCFL established the Toyota Families for Learning program (TFFL) to increase the achievement of pre-school age children by implementing strong family literacy activities for themselves and their parents. More than 110 successful TFFL sites in 20 major cities have been established in the U.S.

The second family literacy program, Toyota Families in Schools (TFS), was established in 1998 to bring the successes of TFFL to students ages five to 12 and their families. Fifteen school districts and 45 elementary schools have been involved in the TFS program nationwide.

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., is Toyota's sales, marketing and distribution headquarters for the United States. TMS oversees sales and other operations for approximately 1,482 Toyota, Lexus and Toyota Industrial Equipment dealerships in 49 states. Through its subsidiaries, TMS also is involved in distribution logistics, the aviation industry, motorsports research and development, and in providing financial and insurance services to dealers and customers.

The National Center for Family Literacy has pioneered a program that combines children's education, adult literacy education, parent education and structured interaction between parents and their children. NCFL works to ensure that all families at the lowest ends of both the literacy and economic continua will have opportunities to improve their education and social well-being through quality, family literacy programs. For more information, please visit our Web site: www.famlit.org or call the Family Literacy InfoLine: 1-877-FAMLIT-1.

Literacy