KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax, and advisory firm, and professional golfer and Metro Atlanta resident Mariah Stackhouse announced that Stackhouse is joining the “Blue for Books” program, the firm’s nationwide charitable initiative that puts thousands of books into the hands of children in need through the sale of blue KPMG golf hats, just like the KPMG hat that Stackhouse will wear on the LPGA Tour.

Celebrating this announcement on Martin Luther King Day, Stackhouse joined local volunteers from KPMG to enhance Thomasville Heights Elementary School’s library in advance of grand reopening events tomorrow morning.

KPMG will provide new furniture, repaint the library, reorganize its bookshelves, and stock them with over 600 brand new books provided through KPMG’s Family for Literacy program. The firm also will distribute more than 1,300 new books to the school’s 450 students to take home.

“We are proud to have Mariah Stackhouse join KPMG’s Family for Literacy program to help us benefit the lives of more children,” said Lynne Doughtie, Chairman and CEO, KPMG LLP. “It’s our mission to improve childhood literacy in America by providing access to new books.”

Tomorrow morning, KPMG leaders and volunteers including the head of the firm’s Atlanta office, Milford McGuirt, as well as Stackhouse will join students, school officials, and other community leaders for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9:00 a.m.

“We are so proud that a hometown hero and role model such as Mariah has joined our KFFL family to help improve the prospects for children in need, especially with her making her name here in Atlanta,” said McGuirt, office managing partner for KPMG’s Atlanta office. Part of the Carver Cluster Area Schools, Thomasville Heights Elementary is among the least supported and most in need in the Atlanta area.

“Research shows that most of the academic achievement gap in high school is already visible by kindergarten,” says McGuirt. “And it shows that kids from low-education families can do as well as children from high-education families if they have access to books at home and as well as at school.”

Stackhouse adds, “I’m very excited about joining KPMG’s Blue for Books program and contributing to KPMG’s Family for Literacy initiative—especially starting out right here in my hometown of Atlanta. I’m passionate about giving kids every chance to succeed in life, and the ability to read is so crucial to making that possible.”

Since 2008, KPMG has delivered 2.9 million new books to children across the country, in cooperation with First Book, an award-winning nonprofit.