Happy New Year!
We're starting the new year off quickly with our first reading clubs of 2022 this Saturday morning, and we may still have an open volunteer spot for you*!
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 "Mysteries & New Adventures" 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!)
*We must continue to limit 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. See below for how virtual clubs work.
The schools are still on their 3-week Winter Break, so we have somewhat fewer teacher hosts than usual for this Saturday's reading clubs.
If you check our website and find all reader spots are full today or tomorrow, please keep checking back so we'll have enough volunteers in case someone had to cancel.
TWO STAND-BY READERS WANTED!
If all spots are full you can also let us know at
info@readingtokids.org if you are willing to be a
"stand-by" reader for this Saturday. A "stand-by" reader is someone willing to fill in for any grade at any school if we have any last-second reader cancellations.
Stand-by readers must be available this Saturday morning from 8am to around 11am and willing to read via Zoom to any grade at any school. It's a really important role!
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HOW VIRTUAL READING CLUBS WORK
Because LAUSD has not yet determined when volunteer organizations can return to on-campus events, we continue to 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!
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NINE RUNNERS NEEDED FOR THE
2022 LA MARATHON,
13.1 MILE CHARITY CHALLENGE,
OR 5K!
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 2022 Los
Angeles Marathon on Sunday,
March 20th!
We're looking for at least three more marathon runners and six Charity Challenge runners (the last 13.1 miles of the course) to join us in one of the best marathons in the country.
If either of those distances is 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, March 19, 2022.
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 to the support of so many of you, our 2021 Annual Fund Drive was a rousing success, with 471 donors helping us raise $72,111, blowing away our goal of $60,000!
We still expect a few more checks to arrive in the mail, as well as more corporate matching donations, so we may still reach 500 donors!
Our very special thanks go out to our eight
fundraising Angels:
Matthew Jones
Christina Branom
BTS ARMY (in honor of BTS/)
Mark May
|
Alyson Beckman
Stan Thompson
Silvia Collins (Politi Elem. Principal)
Prince Selvage
|
Click here to see how much each raised – together they raised $15,796 from 201 donors!
School Competition Winners!
Highest overall percentage of volunteers who donated to the Annual Fund Drive:
1st: Los Angeles Elementary!
2nd: Politi Elementary (only 3% behind Los Angeles!)
3rd: Esperanza Elementary
Highest overall dollar amount raised for the Annual Fund Drive:
1st: Esperanza Elementary!
2nd: Politi Elementary
3rd: White Elementary
Volunteers at all of the schools together raised
$13,933!
Finally, we extend our sincere appreciation to all 471 donors
over the last three reading clubs!
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Thanks, and let's look forward to a year filled with books and crafts with the kids!