News 2010
Hoopoe Share Literacy’s 2010 Holiday Give-Away provided
over 15,000 children with books!
Thanks to the support of our Share donors, we were able to provide just over 15,000 books to children for the holiday season. All the books were delivered by volunteers, friends of Share Literacy and other community volunteers, including the Rotary Club, the Boy Scouts of Silicon Valley, and the Los Altos Teabags.
22 programs in California and the East Coast participated this past season.
Excerpts from some of the wonderful “thank you’s” we received:
“Thank you for your very generous donation of over 600 brand new books…The patients and families that attend our primary care clinic look forward to being able to take home new books from our waiting room shelves. I was impressed by the quality and quantity of books which were very popular…I even saw a girl at the bus stop after work reading one of your donated books.” —Christopher Alexander, Reach Out and Read Coordinator, Children’s Hospital Boston
“Your books were a hit at our holiday party. We thank you for your continued support and kindness… It is amazing to see the reactions of mothers and families when they receive items they need and it truly makes them feel special…In January 2011, we will have volunteers doing weekly or biweekly reading groups with the children and their moms. We hope it will help children see how wonderful reading can be and will instill a desire in them to pick up a book for enjoyment. We also anticipate that mothers will see how pleasurable reading with their children can be.” —Sharon Bechtol, Volunteer Coordinator, Homeless Prenatal Program of San Francisco.
“Thank you for your gift of books…When a family stays at the House, they have but one focus—the health of their child. Your contribution is so important because it adds to the nurturing environment and helps make Ronald McDonald House the place where hope has a home.”
—Linda Lyon, Development Director, Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, CA.
One of dozens and dozens of thank-you letters from “grateful” students in the Alum Rock Union School District, San Jose CA.
Thanks to a private donor in January 2010,
Hoopoe
reached the African continent!
Copies of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water were hand-delivered to 200 children of the Bibi Jenn School, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, by ISHK volunteer, Margaret Caudill Slosberg, M.D., who was on a trip to the region. Dr. Caudill says she wished she had a larger suitcase so she could have taken a lot more.
Officer Joel Luevano reads to
Preschoolers at Glanker School
in the Fremont Union School
District (California).
Fremont Union School District (CA): State Preschool
Program Received over 350 Home
Literacy Kits
Once again in 2010, we were able to provide children in this school district with over 350 home literacy kits and their teachers with activity guides, books and CDs. One school invited a local police officer to read The Silly Chicken and relate the story to thinking about safety.
Hoopoe Books are Featured In East Coast
Community Programs
FLORIDA CHILDREN RECEIVE HOOPOE BOOKS WINTER 2009-2010
RUSKIN, FL: Children in the RCMA program received Hoopoe books this winter thanks to donors and supporters to Share Literacy. Barbara Mainster, the Executive Director of RCMA, sent us this great photo (above) and writes:
“Please share our thanks and excitement with all who were a part of sending RCMA the over 3700 books! We got them out into children’s hands this past week and I personally got to go over the Old Lady and the Eagle with a large parent group. What a hit! And what great conversations took place as a result. Also used it teaching a small class of early childhood teachers last night. But of most importance, look at the children in the picture above. Their faces say it all. The illustrations, colors and stories are lovely. I cannot thank you enough.”
NORTH JERSEY COUNCIL MEMBER READS THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME IN A SCHOOL READ-A-THON
NORTHVALE, NJ: City Councilman, Roy Sokoloski, along with other council members and Mayor John Hogan read to children at a local elementary school’s Read-a-Thon. Mr. Sokoloski picked out Shah’s The Boy Without a Name, even though he had read it in a previous Read-a-Thon, saying “The more you read it, the better it gets.” Click here for the entire article taken from NorthJersey.com, the North Jersey Media Group’s online magazine.
Massachusetts Programs Receive Hoopoe Books
Thanks to Share donors and the efforts of volunteers, schools and youth programs in Massachusetts are receiving gifts of books for students. Here are some letters and notes of appreciation from some of these programs.
"…reading is fun and you learn new things and also you
actually feel like reading over and over again…"
—2nd Grader, Prospect Hill Academy (Somerville, MA).
Boston, MA: Karin Kugel, Librarian of the Prospect Hill Academy, sent a packet of student compositions on Fatima the Spinner and The Boy Without a Name by Idries Shah. The students wrote about having special dreams and patience and about learning new words and having fun with reading. As a second grader wrote: “…I think the golden rule of the story [Fatima the Spinner and the Tent] is never give up your hopes and if something bad happens something good will come out of it.”
“I finished the book [The Boy Without a Name] on Tuesday. We read it all last week. The kids loved it!!! We wrote down the meanings for all the vocab. words and performed the play on the last day of the reading. Also, the students took the books home to discuss it with their parents. They taught their parents all the new words they now know.” —Briannce Ruggerio, 2nd Grade Teacher at Prospect Hill Academy.
Jamaica Plains, MA: Share volunteer, Sally Whittaker, arranged a gift of books for the ReadBoston/Reading is Fundamental programs. Teacher Nancy Cardona of Curley Lower School writes to Share Literacy after receiving books for her students in June 2010: “Thank you so much! The children were so proud of their new books!” and she sent us some letters of appreciation…
Click here to read more of the letters (692 KB pdf).
