All 1,126 kids, 422 volunteers, 151 parents, and 22 teachers & staff felt "The Spirit of Giving" at last Saturday's reading clubs. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the December Reading Clubs such a success! The Spirit of Giving extends throughout the year at Reading to Kids. Sign up now for our "Discovery and Adventure" reading clubs on January 12th!

A special thanks to all of our St. Nicks and elves for bringing the North Pole to the reading clubs, and to the Pasadena Jaycees for providing the Santa suits once again! If you want to wear the red suit yourself and make Christmas Eve special for some lucky children in need, volunteer with Operation Santa. Click here for more information on how you can help sort toys from now until Christmas Eve, or deliver presents on Christmas Eve.

At the December 8th Reading Clubs we continued the 2012 Annual Fund Drive, and thanks to many generous volunteer readers that morning, we have now raised more than $30,000 overall from more than 400 donors! This puts us closer to our goals of raising $45,000 from 1,000 donors by December 31st!

The school that had the largest percentage of their volunteers donate at this past Saturday's clubs was Gratts Elementary! Congratulations to Charles White Elementary for again coming in second place in December, and for remaining the overall winner with the largest percentage of their volunteers donating at all three of the reading clubs held during our Annual Fund Drive!

It is not too late to donate! Without your support, we would be unable to serve the thousands of children we read to each year. From now until the end of the year, we urge all of you who have not contributed to donate now!

You may have noticed from some of the wonderful photos and comments posted on our Facebook Profile page that this past Saturday we donated our 20,000th hardcover, read-aloud book to our partner schools' libraries!  We could not have reached this significant milestone without your support, and we thank you for your donations of time, energy and money!

Facebook remains one of our most powerful recruiting tools, so when you see our events and posts on Facebook, please "Like" or post your comments about them to help us spread the word about our activities, such as the 2012 Annual Fund Drive. Your comments and "Likes" make a difference, and we thank you for them!

(And the same goes for retweeting our Tweets on Twitter!)

Congratulations to Kirstin Harper-Smith, Gratts Site Coordinator, for becoming our new top 2012 Annual Fund Drive Angel! Kirstin became an AFD Angel by gathering from 10 or more people donations to our 2012 Annual Fund Drive. 

How did Kirstin do it?

Kirstin used our donor form to gather $1,020 in donations from 42 of her co-workers!  She then asked her employer, Clark Construction, if they would match those donations - and they did, sending us a matching check for $1,000!  Perhaps your employer will match your donation to Reading to Kids - all you have to do is ask!

How You Can Help!

1 - Make a pledge to donate by check or donate online today by visiting our 2012 Annual Fund Drive. Contributions of any amount are greatly appreciated!

2 - Show your support by asking friends and family to contribute! Visit our 2012 Annual Fund Drive page and look under the "Help us Fundraise!" header for resources, including information on creating your own personalized fundraising page, our handy donor form for raising money with your friends and co-workers, tips for fundraising, and so much more.