We still have a few more spots open for this Saturday's "Family & the Spirit of Giving" virtual reading clubs! Quick, quick, quick, dash over to readingtokids.org to RSVP! Santa will be visiting the Zoom clubs, too!
If you have ever read with us at any of our prior reading clubs (face-to-face or virtual), please RSVP now at our homepage at
www.readingtokids.org or keep checking back to submit your RSVP for our virtual reading clubs this Saturday!
(If you are signed up but can't attend after all, please
click here to cancel ASAP or before 3:00 p.m. tomorrow so someone else can take your place!)
If you check the website and find it is full, please keep checking back, since additional spots may open today and tomorrow.
We are
again limiting RSVPs for these virtual reading clubs only to returning
volunteers - people who have volunteered with us at least once before
at any of our previous face-to-face or virtual reading clubs.
EXPERIENCED
SCHOOL AMBASSADORS WANTED
ON ZOOM TOMORROW
Help promote Reading to Kids at our partner schools' Zoom sessions tomorrow!
If you have participated in our virtual reading clubs before, then you are qualified to encourage the kids on Zoom tomorrow.
It's a lot of fun and we'll supply the very brief talking points. You may not get to speak at all, and it's great if you can speak Spanish (even a little), though there's always someone from the school on a Zoom session who can translate for you.
If you can be a Zoom Ambassador tomorrow, please reply email us at
info@readingtokids.org and we'll send you the Ambassador info!
HOW VIRTUAL READING CLUBS WORK
Because LAUSD teachers are
using Zoom to reach their students, we will use Zoom for these virtual reading
clubs. The reading clubs will be hosted by participating teachers at each school
using their school Zoom accounts, but you will need your own Zoom account to
join the reading club. If you don’t already have a Zoom account, you can sign up
for a free, Basic account here:
https://zoom.us/pricing
IMPORTANT:
You will need to use Zoom from a desktop or laptop computer. The phone and
tablet versions of Zoom do not have the necessary features for our virtual
reading clubs.
Ideally, anyone who
volunteers for these virtual reading clubs will be comfortable using
Zoom. If you wish to test out your Zoom connectivity prior to the
reading clubs, we encourage you to email us at
info@readingtokids.org so we may do a brief test run with you before the
virtual reading clubs.
The Friday before the
reading clubs you will receive a link for a Zoom "check-in" session with your
Site Coordinators that will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. that Saturday.
Click here to review the schedule for these virtual reading clubs.
Once you and your fellow
volunteers are checked in, that same Zoom session will have a Zoom Volunteer
Orientation / Virtual Reading Club Training that will start promptly at 9:15
a.m.
At 9:30 a.m. you and your
volunteer partner will leave that Site Coordinator session and then join the
teacher's Zoom session. The teacher will host the Zoom call and make you
co-hosts. The first 30 minutes will be for troubleshooting and a prep session
for just you and your reading partner and the teacher.
The kids will join that
same reading club Zoom session at 10:00 a.m., and it will likely go until 10:30
or 11:00, at the teacher's discretion.
After the reading clubs
end you will then rejoin your Site Coordinator's Zoom call for a brief wrap-up.
To screen share the book
you will be reading with the children, you will need Adobe Acrobat or the free
Adobe Reader from
https://get.adobe.com/reader.
We will provide you a PDF
of the read-aloud book so you can prepare for the reading clubs. You can see the
read-aloud book titles for this month at
https://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksMonth.php.
We will provide at the
above link activities and simple craft ideas the kids can do at home. You would
prepare to lead the kids in an activity and craft, though you may not actually
do a craft, depending upon how the Zoom session goes. The kids may just want to
talk to new faces!
December is
the final month of our
2020 Annual Fund Drive, our most important
fundraiser of the year - and so far 322 donors have donated $31,081!
Help us reach our fundraising goals of $60,000 from 600 donors with
a donation by cash, check, or credit card.
School Competition Standings So Far:
Highest percentage of volunteers who have donated so far:
1st: Esperanza Elementary (40%)
2nd: Alta Loma Elementary (36%)
3rd: MacArthur Park Elementary (33%)
Highest dollar amount raised so far:
1st: Esperanza Elementary (thanks to
Angel fundraisers Mark May & Vicky Nesia)
2nd: Los Angeles Elementary
3rd: Alta Loma Elementary (thanks to
Angel fundraiser Mariel Rubio)
Here's how you can help, with your donations
also counting towards the school competition:
1) Make a pledge to donate by check or donate online
today by visiting our
2020 Annual Fund Drive. Contributions of any amount are
greatly appreciated!
2) Show your support by asking friends and family to
contribute!
Visit our
2020 Annual Fund Drive
page and look under the "Help us Fundraise!"
header for resources, including information on creating your own
personalized fundraising page on Facebook, our handy
donor sheet for raising money with your friends and
co-workers,
tips for fundraising, and so much more.
Once they know about Reading to Kids, many of your
friends and family will want to donate -
we just need you to ask!
If you collect donations this week, you can announce them at
Saturday's reading clubs!
MAKE YOUR DONATION A MATCH
At this Saturday's reading clubs we have supporters at most schools offering to match the first $300 or $1,000 of donations made this week and at the reading clubs! This means that anyone reading and donating at those schools by this Saturday will have their donations doubled!
If you or your employer can do something
similar, please let us know and announce it if you are volunteering on Saturday -
a matching donation can be an exciting way to inspire
others to donate!
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3 MORE RUNNERS WANTED FOR THE
2021 LA MARATHON,
1/2 MARATHON, OR 5K!
The Los Angeles Marathon announced two weeks ago that they have rescheduled the LA Big 5K to Saturday,
May 22nd and the marathon to Sunday,
May 23rd. This means more time to train!
Do you know any runners? Are you a
runner? Please forward this email to them
and ask them to join
Team Reading to Kids in the 2021 Los
Angeles Marathon on Sunday,
May 23rd!
We're looking for three more marathon runners or Charity Challenge runners (the last 13 miles of the course) to join us in one of the best marathons in the country.
If either of those distances are too daunting, you can join us in the LA Big 5K (that's just 3.1 miles) near Dodger Stadium the day before the marathon on Saturday, May 22, 2021.
You can
share this Facebook group with any of your runner
friends to encourage them to join our team!
If you or a runner you know is interested in
becoming one of our fundraising runners or
creating a fundraising team, please email
Chris Martin at
marathon@readingtokids.org!
IMPORTANT NOTE: To register to run
on behalf of Reading to Kids, you
MUST receive from us a special web address
to use when registering on the Los Angeles Marathon website.
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THANK YOU TO THE GREEN FOUNDATION
We are thrilled to thank
The Green Foundation
for awarding us another $15,000 grant!
This is their fifth grant to us, and The Green Foundation's continued support helps us all share our love of reading with the thousands of children at our partner schools. Together we are working to improve the lives and libraries of the kids who join us every month!
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