First Grandmother Marian Robinson, RIF Board member Lynda Johnson Robb with grandchild Eleanor and me on the plaza of the Lyndon Baines Johnson U. S. Department of Education building.
What a day at the U. S. Department of Education for RIF as Secretary Arne Duncan continued his “Let’s Read, Let’s Move” summer events. RIF was also present last week which was somewhat a warm up for everyone for the big, big day today when the Secretary was joined by Marian Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama; and of more interest to the children present today, she is the grandmother of Malia and Sasha!
Secretary Duncan and RIF kids enjoying the children's new books for ownership.
RIF kids were there in bright red shirts and blue RIF stickers, Riffington was entertaining everyone with his basketball moves, books were distributed and special stories were read by Secretary Duncan (WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE) and Grandmother Robinson (THE NAPPING HOUSE). The kids were able to ask questions of Duncan and Robinson; we learned Grandmother Robinson loved LITTLE WOMEN as a child while her own children, Michelle and Craig, loved STONE SOUP (having their mother read it over and over and over she related). And of course the children wanted to know about the dog; Mrs. Robinson answered she did not have a dog growing up nor did her children have a dog, but she said with a wonderful smile “Bo is precious, I love Bo.”
Riffington ready for a basketball game and joined here by his fans from RIF and the Department of Education!
Thank you, Secretary Duncan, for inviting RIF to be a part of today’s summer reading and exercise experience with an extra special thank you to Grandmother Robinson for sharing the day and making it even more memorable for all of us!
What a special morning at Books of Wonder in New York City as children from St. Aloysius Education Clinic heard Susan Sarandon read Wild About Books and talked with her about books, movies, and more as RIF and Macy’s launched the fifth year of Book A Brighter Future. Wild animal masks for each child, a multicultural book distribution with Susan helping each child place her/his name in the chosen books, cupcakes, and wild animal bingo were all part of the experience for the children who left with yellow backpacks stuffed with books and literacy goodies! A special morning for a special cause – now it’s time for some serious shopping at Macy’s!
In late spring several RIF national staff travelled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to attend a Jean Dean RIF distribution and the National Latino Children’s Literature Conference at the University of Alabama. Both events were a tremendous success and indicative of the commitment of community leaders found across the nation to improve upon literacy in our communities.
RIF national would like to send a special thanks to Cathy Gafford for her tireless efforts to ensure so many children across the state of Alabama are able to receive books. Jean Dean RIF and the West Alabama Kiwanians celebrated their 20th year of service and RIF national was glad to be a part of this commemorative celebration at the Tuscaloosa Head Start. The students were excited to have their third and final book distribution for the school year and wished to read every book they received simultaneously during the read-a-loud.
The National Latino Children’s Literature Conference, themed “Connecting Cultures and Celebrating Cuentos (Stories/Tales),” was quite electrifying with keynote addresses from the co-founder of the Pura Belpré Award, Oralia Garza de Cortes, award-winning children’s author and widely published scholar, Monica Brown and Pura Belpré Award-winning illustrator, Rafael Lopez,. In addition to these exciting addresses RIF staff was able to connect with numerous librarians, community activists, and grassroots volunteers from around the country.
These two events represented the hard work and dedication of many individuals, collectively working to improve literacy within our communities. By opening internal and external worlds through books we are able to build interest and a love for reading.
From left, an Atlanta student enjoys communications activity; a Pitney Bowes employee reads to Atlanta students.
This is Kathryn Jackson, RIF’s director of corporate relations, reporting back to you on the partnership between RIF and Pitney Bowes.
RIF and Pitney Bowes joined forces recently to host family literacy nights in Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. The three events, all hosted by local RIF programs and staffed by Pitney Bowes employees, were great opportunities to celebrate reading as a family. The communities answered the invitation enthusiastically—in total, nearly 1,400 parents and their children attended the events! The theme for each was “Share the Message: READ!” and all activities and books were related to a communications theme.
After enjoying dinner, the children and their families participated in five activities that focused on various forms of communication, from expressing themselves through drawing and writing to creating beaded bracelets with different ways to say “Hello!” At each station, the children collected a stamp on their reading “passport.” Each child also chose a new book to take home. Pitney Bowes employees were on hand to share the evening with the kids, leading activities and serving as great guest readers!
Following these events, I’m sure many bedtime stories in Atlanta, Dallas, and D.C. were from the kids’ new RIF books. On the way out, parents and kids were asking when the school would have the next family literacy night—a sure sign of a very successful event!
Congresswoman Markey shown with me after selecting a book to share with a special young person.
Hi! This is Krista Heckler, Manager of Government Relations at RIF. Recently I attended the Centennial BOCES Annual Outstanding Migrant Students Award Celebration at Valley High School in Gilcrest, Colorado. This celebration recognizes the current graduates from high school and those who have consistently done an outstanding job throughout the year. Centennial BOCES Migrant RIF Program coordinator, Christine Muldoon, noted their RIF program serves many of these outstanding students and shared that many of these students and families would not have books in the home if it were not for the RIF program. After the celebration, students and their families were able to browse through a variety of RIF books and choose one to take home and keep. The students were excited about choosing and keeping another book!
Congresswoman Betsy Markey was the keynote speaker at the event and noted the importance of reading and stated that these outstanding students and their parents recognize the important role literacy and education can play in their daily lives and their future. She congratulated the students for their accomplishments and noted that the BOCES Migrant RIF Program was the National RIF Program of the Month in December. Congresswoman Markey encouraged the students to keep reading and keep learning!
A Capitol Hill staffer shows off the book he selected!
Hi! This is Krista Heckler, Manager of Government Relations at RIF. Recently RIF held an exciting event on Capitol Hill, our 5th annual “See What’s Brewing with RIF” in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building. Members of Congress, schedulers, and education legislative assistants dropped by and were treated to specialty coffees, fresh fruit smoothies, and the opportunity to frost their own delicious cupcakes. Visitors also met Riffington, the RIF mascot, and had a picture made with him as well as chose from an array of multicultural children’s books a book to keep just as children do at RIF book distributions across the country.
RIF appreciates the support of Macy’s in sponsoring this year’s event which gave members of Congress and their staff the opportunity not only for some “child-like fun” but also to visit with RIF staff to learn more about new and exciting programming by RIF for children and families in their districts and states.
I am deeply grateful to The Gala Leadership Committee chaired by Chartese Y. Burnett and co-chaired by Deborah Bonito and Gayle Wicker; and RIF applauds our sponsors and all who attended and participated throughout the evening’s events.
To the RIF staff I extend a huge “shout out” for your tireless work over recent months and then yesterday in making it the special RIF occasion it was and in particular, a Gala that was fun, festive and told the RIF story moment after moment.
When I “plugged into the net” this morning it was a special treat to read our friend and author Sara Lewis Holmes’ blog entry. Wow, she really captured the Gala so well! We are delighted you and Mike joined us, Sara, and all your RIF friends thank you for this lovely tribute to the evening you posted this morning at “Read Write Believe.“
For all present, a true highlight of the evening was Dr. Dale Allender sharing his own story as a “RIF kid” in addition to relating other “RIF kid” vignettes…these stories all reminded us of the power of a new book chosen by a child to indeed be his very own book.
Ooops, I meant to post this yesterday but found the wi-fi site I frequent on the mountain closed “early” and therefore, no posting Saturday afternoon.
Week two in the new office finds RIF settling in and working full steam ahead on upcoming activities: “See What’s Brewing” on the Hill this week and the week of May 24 our spring Board meeting, Gala, visits by our national Volunteers of the Year and both our Literature Advisory Board and Multicultural Advisory Committee. Is this best called “piling it on” ourselves? It will be fun!
COTY: Looking in the rear view mirror, last week was kicked off by a delightful train trip to Stamford, Connecticut where RIF Board member Juanita James of Pitney Bowes was honored by the City of Stamford and the Jewish War Veterans Fred Robbins post 142 as the 65th Stamford Citizen of the Year (COTY). A room at the Italian Center the native Stamford citizens told me is regularly limited to 350-400 guests was packed with 550 individuals present to honor Juanita; quite a tribute, eh? And these folks know how to run a tribute program….an hour of great visiting in advance, dinner, scholarship presentations, and a fun Larry King Live production featuring Juanita followed by a formal presentation of her through remarks of her husband and son, Juanita’s acceptance and voila, it was only 9:15 p.m….plenty of time for more visiting by those who wished to do so! Without question the highlight of the evening was Juanita’s son Dudley N. Williams III presenting his mother – no dry eyes in the room and the most genuine mother/son love you could hope to find in a presentation. Congratulations, Juanita and family, we are so proud to work alongside you!
Pictures below: (1) Squint and you will see it is truly Larry King Live with Juanita as the guest! (2) Dudley III presents his mom. (3) Juanita accepts the award.
DCI: A few years ago as a 40th RIF anniversary gift to the children of DC, RIF national took on the task of directly coordinating the RIF Books for Ownership program within the DC Public Schools; we call it the DC Initiative or DCI. Working in cooperation with a designated lead at each school, RIF closes its office doors three days a year to spend time “walking the walk” in more than 40 schools. It is a time of learning for us and for renewing our dedication to RIF’s mission. This year we have used as the theme for the three distributions the particular culturally designated celebration in the month of the distribution…last week’s distribution was in honor of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. DC’s Martin Luther King Jr. elementary school has been paired this year for each distribution with students at Tyson William Elementary School in Anchorage, Alaska for a Skype experience each distribution; read more about the Dragon dance and these great students!
BookSpring of Austin: I learned through Twitter this week Supt. Carstarphen of Austin visited a RIF site at Barrington Elementary overseen by BookSpring in recent days. She found upon entering the library that it was camping time! What a great way to lead into summer reading – reminding our students in fun ways how important it is for them to continue their reading, expand their reading horizons!
HALF THE SKY: Finally, early in the week I completed this book by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn; it is a tough book to read…tough emotionally, tough intellectually to genuinely absorb “yes, this is all really happening to women and girls around the world.” I’ll write more later, but you need to put HALF THE SKY: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide on your reading list, the “must” read side of the list!
Wishing you all best wishes as you start the new week, Happy Reading!
Carol
Congressman Cao visits with students about their dreams for their futures.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Congressman Cao asked the enthusiastic students. Hands shot up as students prepared to answer the question. “I want to be a doctor” replied one student. “I want to be a police officer” replied another student. “I want to be a vegetarian”, replied still another student, “because I like animals”. The Congressman politely corrected the student, “I think you mean veterinarian!”.
This was the scene last Friday, May 7th at William J. Fischer Accelerated Academy as part of their third RIF book distribution sponsored by Communities In Schools of Greater New Orleans; the event was covered by The Times-Picayune. The theme for this distribution was “Dreams of What You Can Be” and CIS featured Congressman Ahn “Joseph” Cao (LA-2) for a special presentation and read-aloud to 3rd through 5th grade students. After reading My Granny Went to Market, Congressman Cao observed the students selecting their RIF books and volunteers from Communities In Schools helped the students stamp them and write their names in their new book.
“Teaching children how to read is essential to developing an educated and competitive work force, and the RIF Inexpensive Book Distribution program is a great way to get books in the hands of young readers. That is why I am so enthusiastic in my support for RIF and Communities in Schools,” said Congressman Cao.
“Reading is one of the ways that children can begin exploring different opportunities for their futures,” said Sara Massey, executive director of CIS – Greater New Orleans and RIF coordinator. “We are thrilled that Congressman Cao could join us in New Orleans to encourage students to begin thinking of their dreams and how reading can help them achieve their goals.”
The CIS – Greater New Orleans RIF program has provided 7,500 books for local children this school year. Last August, students at six Orleans parish schools received 2,500 books through the “United We Read” initiative launched by RIF, CIS – Greater New Orleans, and the National PTA as part of President Obama’s United We Serve campaign. Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the CIS – Greater New Orleans RIF program has provided more than 12,000 books to elementary school children in seven Orleans parish public schools.
RIF Coordinator and executive director Sara Massey greets Congressman Cao.
Happy reading!
Stephen Leach
VP Government Relations and Community Outreach
The refrain above from The Sound of Music is the one I hear most now in my head as the day dawns here in DC; it is RIF’s last day at 1825 Connecticut Avenue NW. The basement is cleared (can you believe it?), the “bowling alley” is vacant, boxes and crates form a maze and the walls are bare of the delightful children’s art that has reminded us daily of our key customers – children across the country discovering the joy of reading!
The fourth floor at 1825 holds many memories of times happy and anxious, accomplishments beyond our dreams and friendships forged across this country through phone, email, and good old fashioned face-to-face visits. We’ve welcomed Volunteers of the Year, Program Excellence Honor coordinators, visitors from RIF Argentina and RIF UK, authors, illustrators, children designing winning posters; Board meetings have been held where the Coca-Cola project was unveiled, the big Macy’s successes announced, plans discussed for the doubling of our books for ownership program, and researchers presented the latest in children’s literacy studies. RIF has held its first galas during this period, celebrated special recognition months in keeping with our multicultural literacy campaign, welcomed the first RIF Literature Advisory Board, planned and executed the DC Initiative, gone “on-line” with subcontracts through RAMS. An award winning website serves parents, educators, community members and most importantly, the children of the nation; ambassadors and state advisors help us reach more directly into communities offering support to local coordinators; Kappa Kappa Gamma is a national partner…and the list goes on with what our reflections show as actions taken, memories made while headquartered here.
We take these memories on which we will continue to build this great legacy as the moving vans start to load for the journey a few blocks over to 1255 23rd Street NW. Won’t you take a moment and help fill this virtual “time capsule” with some memories you have of 1825 whether your visits have been virtual or in person? Or perhaps you wish to share a dream you have for RIF over the coming years. We plan to save the “capsule” and open it in five years - what will RIF have accomplished by then toward our ongoing mission of assisting in the building of a nation of readers, readers who have discovered the joy of reading!
Happy reading, we’ll “see” you at 1255 next week!
Carol
