Zoom Santa with helper
(click above image to see full size)
We especially thank our
Zoom Santas for bringing welcome holiday spirit to the reading clubs, and to the
Pasadena Jaycees for once again providing the
Santa suits!
They need lots of volunteers for their socially-distant version this year of
Operation Santa.
Help them bring joy to children over the next several days before Christmas -
click here or email them at
OpSanta@PasadenaJaycees.org!
Over the last week we received another $4,866 from 52 donors (including $565 from eleven volunteers at the Saturday reading clubs) towards our 2020 Annual Fund Drive!
Thanks to the Facebook fundraisers created by volunteers Matthew Jones, Mariel Rubio, Emily Sandersfeld, Mark May, Vicky Nesia, Andrea Smoot, & Prince Selvage, we have now raised $35,947 overall from 366 donors!
This puts us closer to our ambitious goal of raising $60,000 from 600 donors within the next two weeks!
The names of the new donors have already been added to our
2020 Annual Fund Drive page, and here are the school competition stats so far:
SCHOOL COMPETITION WINNERS!
Highest percentage of volunteers who donated at the Dec. 12th reading clubs:
1st: MacArthur Park
2nd: Esperanza
3rd: White
Highest dollar amount raised at the Dec. 12th reading clubs:
1st: Esperanza
2nd: White (thanks to new
Angel fundraiser Prince Selvage)
3rd: MacArthur Park
Highest percentage of volunteers who have donated overall:
1st: Esperanza
2nd: MacArthur Park
3rd: Alta Loma
Highest dollar amount raised so far:
1st: Esperanza (thanks to
Angel fundraisers Mark May & Vicky Nesia)
2nd: Los Angeles
3rd: Alta Loma
DONATE TODAY!
We have just 15 days to raise $24,053 from
234 more donors.
Here's
how you can help, with your donations still being counted 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!
Also, if your workplace matches donations to nonprofits, please share
with them your donation, and ask them to consider matching it. In this way you
double your donation and share with others your enthusiasm
for Reading to Kids!
_______________________________________________
10 MILESTONE READERS!
Virtual reading clubs count towards our milestones just as much as our face-to-face reading clubs!
Though we couldn't provide printed milestone certificates to them, we honored these 10 volunteers by sharing their milestone certificates at their schools' Site Coordinator debrief sessions after the clubs!
• Kimberly Cervantes, Christine Nguyen, & Terri Taylor (10 reading clubs each)
• Danielle Currin, Jessica Dunning (mostly as a Site Coordinator at White Elementary), & Jennifer Monroy (20 reading clubs)
Pictured below are the certificates for our four largest milestones this month:
• Edgar Hernandez (60 reading clubs, mostly as a Site Coordinator)
• Stan Thompson (70 reading clubs, mostly as a Training Coordinator, too)
• Chris Martin (160 reading clubs, and he's also Santa at the top of this email!)
• Kori Wilson (170 reading clubs, many as a Site Coordinator)
_______________________________________________
JANUARY 9TH READING CLUBS
NEARLY CONFIRMED
We are eager for next month's virtual reading clubs on
January 9th, but first need to recruit enough teachers to
be Zoom hosts for them.
In about two weeks when we confirm enough teacher hosts, we
will then open
our RSVP system for those "Mysteries & New Adventures" reading
clubs!
These January reading clubs will be smaller because the schools will still be on their Winter recess, so please keep checking www.readingtokids.org to see if you can submit an RSVP!!
OPERATIONS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
(Click the above image to see full sized!)
For our virtual reading clubs we need experienced volunteers to
help train volunteers to use Zoom or be a second or third virtual Site Coordinator
in our Zoom reading clubs for any of our schools.
Being a Site Coordinator guarantees you a (non-reading) spot at our next reading clubs, so please e-mail us at
info@readingtokids.org if you can help us create wonderful reading clubs!
_______________________________________________
SUPPORT US WITH AMAZONSMILE
Are you doing any gift shopping on
Amazon.com? If you shop using
AmazonSmile, they will donate 0.5% of
your purchases to Reading to Kids!
Click here for easy directions on how to start using
AmazonSmile!
_______________________________________________
3 MORE RUNNERS WANTED FOR THE
2021 LA MARATHON,
1/2 MARATHON, OR 5K!
The Los Angeles Marathon announced three 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.
_______________________________________________
Thanks, and once enough teachers are confirmed over the next few weeks we will open our RSVP system for our next reading clubs (always the second Saturday of each month) on January 9th.
