The election-weary Bush dynasty is rallying in Maine next month to support family matriarch Barbara Bush and her annual "Celebration of Reading" gala in support of family literacy.
Former President George H.W. Bush and other members of the extended Bush family are expected to be on hand for the Sept. 4 event at Vinegar Hill Music Theatre in Arundel, a few miles from the Bush family's summer home in Kennebunkport.
It's sponsored by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and will benefit family literacy programs across the country, including Teen Trendsetters, which pairs teen mentors with first- or second-grade students who are six months or more behind in reading.
This year, guests will include Edgar Award-winning writer Harlan Coben, author of "Tell No One," "Fool Me Once" and "The Stranger"; former White House photographer Eric Draper, author of "Front Row Seat"; and Monica Wood, author of "The One-in-a-Million Boy" and "When We Were the Kennedys."
The event will "bring together members of the Bush family, best-selling authors and community leaders to celebrate the power of literacy," according to the Bangor Daily News.
It's the first major gathering of the clan in the wake of the topsy-turvy presidential campaign which saw Donald Trump insult and eventually drive former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush from the race for the GOP nomination.
The bitter campaign has resulted in neither George H.W. Bush, his son, former President George W. Bush, nor Jeb Bush endorsing Trump for president.
One member of the clan has bucked the family, however, is George P. Bush, Jeb's son, who recently said he would back the billionaire real-estate tycoon who belittled his dad as "low energy" and "dumb as a rock."
Barbara Bush's interest in literacy programs was prompted by her son Neil's diagnosis with dyslexia and by her belief that homelessness was connected to illiteracy. She launched the foundation in 1989 and its chairpersons have included her children Jeb Bush and Doro Bush Koch.
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