Happy New Year!

A few more teachers have committed to being Zoom hosts for this Saturday's "Mysteries & New Adventures" virtual reading clubs, so hike over to readingtokids.org to RSVP!

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.

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!

Thanks to the support of so many of you, our 2020 Annual Fund Drive was another success, with 489 donors helping us raise $61,521, surpassing 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 seven fundraising Angels:

3 MORE RUNNERS WANTED FOR THE
2021 LA MARATHON,
1/2 MARATHON, OR 5K!

Since the Los Angeles Marathon 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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Thanks, and here's to a 2021 filled with happier days, books, and crafts with the kids!