Welcome to The Words Alive Reader, a regular newsletter keeping you up-to-date with the latest in how we've been connecting children, teens, and families to the power of reading. What have we been up to and how can you help? Read on to find out!
This newsletter, in addition to our blog and social media content, is written by us, a cohort of volunteers! Do you love writing and have an interest in helping Words Alive create this type of content? We'd love your help! Email our Volunteer Coordinator, Robyn, to learn more.
- Zoe, Eli and Titiksha, Words Alive Storytelling Team
Words Alive Alumni Give Back
A screenshot from a call with some of our Westreich Scholarship alumni! Lexi (top left) has connected us to the organization where she now works.
We are always thrilled about any opportunity to get books to students, but we're especially excited about our new partnership with SAY (Social Advocates for Youth) San Diego because we are working with one of our Westreich Scholarship alumni! Lexi graduated from San Diego State University last year and is now working as a case manager for this wonderful organization. We loved supporting Lexi through her college journey and we're honored to be able to partner with her now! Thanks to this connection, more than 500 kids will be receiving a new book this holiday season.
Help us develop even more partnerships by purchasing supplies from our Amazon wishlist! Many of these items will go towards innovative programming at Monarch School, Lexi’s alma mater.
Become a Champion for Youth
A graphic with text that reads “Become a Champion for Words Alive This Winter!” above the “Champions for Youth” logo.
Words Alive is constantly seeking new ways to inspire a love of reading and promote educational equity. Help us reach this goal by signing up to become a part of Words Alive's Champions For Youth campaign!
Champions for Youth is an exciting peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that runs from December through January. When you create a fundraising page, you can inspire your friends and family to invest in the joy of reading. Every $10 you help raise will enable us to provide a bedtime story to a child.
The best part? The funds you raise will be amplified by gifts from Farners Insurance and the Century Club of San Diego. Sign up for an information session here!
Thank You, EY Page Turners!
An infographic titled “EY and Page Turners By the Numbers.” The infographic includes the statistics: 275 book reviews; 28, 334 pages read for Page Turners; 51 titles reviewed including What Color is My World? by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Come On In by Adi Alsaid, and Nino Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales; 546 hours spent reading; 211 Page Turners; and “Want to learn more? Visit us at www.wordsalive.org/page-turners”
We’re excited to say that our partnership with EY has brought 211 new virtual volunteers into our Page Turners program from all across the country! Together, they’ve read more than 28,000 pages and written 275 book reviews to help us identify the best books for our curriculum.
And they've had a great time doing it! "We appreciate the opportunity to live our values by volunteering with you...Thank you for making it so easy for our people to give back during this unprecedented year," the EY Ripples team says. Thank you, EY, for helping us make a difference!
If you’d like to join them as a Page Turner, visit our website to learn more.
Virtual Family Literacy Program with Oceanside Public Library
A young child draws with colored pencils in a notebook.
Recently, we partnered with the Oceanside Public Library to create a successful fully-remote version of our Family Literacy Program. Eleven families joined us for the virtual course, which pursued a bilingual approach to literacy.
Through books, crafts, and songs in both English and Spanish, families and their preschool children built key early literacy skills—and just as importantly, a love for reading! One of the participating families says their three-year-old is still talking about the program and even reads to his stuffed animals now. We love it!
If you'd like to help us inspire more families to read together, check out our volunteer opportunities here!
1,780 Brand New Books for Kids
A picture of our Executive Director, Rachael, with lots of boxes of donated books!
San Diego showed off the spirit of giving this week, as we received 1,780 books for kids and teens. We want to say a huge thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the San Diego Council on Literacy for their generous donations, and hope you’ll consider joining them. Help us get even more books into kids' hands this holiday season by donating to our Champions for Youth campaign!
Stock Donations
A young child holds up a sign that says “I’m a Summer Super Reader!”
Donating stock to Words Alive is a meaningful investment in our life-changing literacy work! It's a simple process with many benefits:
You receive a charitable income-tax deduction for the full fair-market value of the stock at the time of the gift.*
You incur no capital gains tax on the increased value of the stock.*
Words Alive has an account at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Your gift must be postmarked by December 31 to qualify for a deduction in that tax year. A stockbroker or trust officer also can arrange for a year-end gift of stock from your account.
To learn more or to make a donation, click here!
*subject to IRS deduction limits