BMAB Raises $29,000
for Malawi at
Aspen Chef's Dinner!
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Spectacular culinary creations and philanthropic generosity marked our June 1st Aspen Chef's Dinner! BMAB welcomed 63 guests to our sold-out 4th annual fundraiser hosted by The Hotel Jerome. Chef George Mahaffey led the team of talented chefs who dazzled our palettes.
The event raised $29,000 in gifts and pledges towards Phase II of our 2-year Malawi Interactive Village Library Project. Reinvigorated with the success of the libraries that we established in six rural villages in the Balaka District, we continue to inspire and transform the lives of families in Malawi.
BMAB would like to extend special thanks to The Hotel Jerome, and Executive Chef Chris Keating for hosting this year's event. |
| Cisco Systems Employees Give Back at BMAB! |
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On June 20th, BMAB had the pleasure of hosting 20 Cisco employee volunteers who donated their time and energy towards providing 70 sites with replenishments of BMAB books. The Cisco team placed BMAB gold seals and helped box over 5,000 books that will be sent to hospital and clinic waiting rooms throughout the Bay Area. The replenishments will serve to rejuvenate existing literature collections that have become a cherished asset for many of the facilities children areas.
In addition to their generous donation of time, Cisco Systems provided BMAB a living wage for each volunteers time. BMAB thanks Cisco for their continued dedication and sustained commitment to helping grow our programs throughout local communities.
For more information on corporate and individual volunteer opportunities, contact BMAB's Volunteer Program Coordinator Montez Davis mdavis@bringmeabook.org. |
Introducing . . .
Our Summer Interns! |
BMAB is happy to introduce our energetic team of interns who are spending their summer strengthening our programs. BMAB sends out warm thanks to our interns Rachel Dowling and Erika Amaya of Stanford University, Katherine Harris, Roxanna Meyers and Anjali Madison of Menlo School and Anushka Pushpala of Archbishop Mitty High School for their outstanding work so far!
Rachel is a philosophy major who is concurrently doing research in Stanford's School of Education. She is investigating early childhood development scholarly literature, drafting material for marketing and development purposes, supporting several First Teachers projects, and creating the summer newsletter.
Erika, an English major, is exploring her interests in book selection for young readers by working in the Bookcase Library program. She is also in contact with many of our community partners and works to cultivate those sustainable relationships.
Katherine, Roxanna and Anjali are working with First Teacher Program Manager Nancy Ducos to prepare materials for First Teacher trainings, and carry out outreach to parents and caregivers in the community.
And Anushka, our tireless intern of two summers, is assisting with organizing new Bookcase Library placements for the fall and processing data from our Festival of Books.
Thank You from the Entire Staff of BMAB! |
Save the Date: August 22
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Cheer on the Giants as they play the Padres on Friday, August 22 at 7pm.
You won't want to miss this game . . . Bring Me A Book and our wonderful Oracle volunteers will be honored with a special home plate recognition!
Call (650) 625-5000 or email info@bringmeabook.org to RSVP and reserve your
FREE TICKETS
We hope to see you there! |
| CONTACT US |
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1049 Terra Bella Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94043
United States
Phone: (650) 625-5000
Fax: (650) 625-9974 | |
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Summer 2008 NEWSLETTER
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| Greetings!
Summer is here and things are heating up at Bring Me A Book! Already we have hosted our 3rd Annual Festival of Books for a record 5,500 children and parents, raised over $29,000 for our efforts in Malawi during our annual Chef's Dinner in Aspen, and have kicked off our literacy coalition in Oakland while continuing our regional efforts in Stockton, Sacramento, Marin and Los Angeles. We encourage everyone to check out our website www.bringmeabook.org for updates on all of our regional and international activities. And please feel free to email us at info@bringmeabook.org or call us (650) 625-5000 if you would like to come to an event, volunteer with one of our programs, make a donation, or share a story about the transformative way reading aloud has shaped your life! From all of us at Bring Me A Book, we wish you and your families a fun-filled summer!
Dianne Calvi, President
Bring Me A Book Foundation |
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5,500 Children and Parents Attend the 3rd Annual Festival of Books at The Children's Discovery Museum of
San Jose
More than 5,500 children and parents celebrated the joy of reading at the 3rd Annual Festival of Books held at the Children's Discovery Museum on June 7th. The day-long event featured live musical and theatrical performances, bookmaking projects and read-aloud story times with translations in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Every child that attended the Festival of Books received a free, hardcover book of their choice from over 20 classic children's titles to continue the day of reading even after the festival was over.
Initially targeted to host 3,500 children and parents, the 2008 Festival of Books was the largest in the event's three year history of promoting literacy and reading aloud to economically underserved communities in Santa Clara County. With event funding from Target and FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, Bring Me A Book and the Read Aloud Collaborative of Silicon Valley was able to provide free busing to the Discovery Museum for families from 27 sites throughout Santa Clara County in addition to distributing free museum tickets through 12 community affiliate agencies.
Bring Me A Book thanks everyone who came and donated their time to this year's Festival of Books!
Click here for more information about Festival of Books and the Read Aloud Collaborative of Silicon Valley. |
The Junior League of Palo Alto-Mid Peninsula Sustainers Unite Generations by Reading Aloud!
 
This June, Bring Me A Book and the Junior League of Palo Alto Mid Peninsula wrapped up their joint Bookcase Library Sustainer pilot program. Beginning in January, members of the Junior League Sustainer volunteer group "adopted" six classrooms at the Stanford New School in East Palo Alto.
Twice a month, volunteers visited six Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms to read aloud to the children, replenish their classroom Bookcase Libraries, and donate brand new hardcover books so that the children could share the joy of reading at home with their families. Sustainers and students bonded over the excitement of exploring children's classics like Madeline, Where the Wild Things Are, and Caps for Sale. The pilot program was so successful that both the Sustainers and students at the Stanford New School eagerly decided to continue the program during the 2008-2009 academic year.
"Bring Me A Book is always looking for ways to create deeper relationships with the communities we serve," says Bring Me A Book's Director of Operations Donna Hall, "The passion and excitement that the Sustainers, teachers and students had throughout this experience reinforces the need to continue this program."
During the upcoming 2008-2009 school year, Bring Me A Book will expand the Junior League Sustainer program by adding two combined 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms to the classrooms served this year. The Junior League of Palo Alto·Mid Peninsula has already committed to supporting these classrooms with biweekly read aloud sessions and donations of books. We are excited about the ways in which these volunteers and children inspire each other to read and celebrate the joy of forming friendships through shared experiences with books! |
BMAB Opens Oakland Regional Office, Embraces Newest Literacy Coalition Member Kaiser Permanente
This June, BMAB celebrated the continued expansion of our regional efforts in Oakland and the East Bay with a ribbon cutting ceremony at Laney College Child Development Center. The ceremony marked the donation of three Bookcase Libraries to the preschool classrooms of Laney College by Kaiser Permanente, one of BMAB's newest partners in our collaborative literacy efforts in Oakland.
We are also proud to introduce our Oakland Regional Manager, Montez Davis. From his new office located in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house in West Oakland, Montez will continue to expand our Bookcase Library and First Teacher programs in the region. Although he is new to this position, he is not new to BMAB. In 2007, he represented BMAB to the Oakland community as our Community Outreach Manager, and played a key role in the formation of a city-wide literacy coalition of several community organizations, including Oakland Ready to Learn, HEROES and Oakland Parents Literacy Program. Under Montez's leadership, BMAB has already placed 80 Bookcase Libraries in Oakland schools and faith-based communities. Moving ahead, we have made it a goal to provide every state-funded preschool and Head Start classroom in the region with one of our Bookcase Libraries.
Strengthened by our community partners in Oakland, we are pursuing our vision of a world where every child reads and succeeds. |
The University of Pacific at Stockton Welcomes BMAB's Work in the San Joaquin Valley
 On May 1st, Dean of the Benerd School of Education at the University of the Pacific, Lynn Beck, hosted an event to honor BMAB's work in San Joaquin County. The celebration involved parents, early childhood educators, administrators, and representatives from over 20 community agencies. The event outlined BMAB's growing presence in the community and the need for more collaboration in a region that represents one of the countries lowest literacy rates.
Dean Beck is a strong supporter of BMAB's programs, and she praised BMAB's goal of providing books for all needy preschool children in the county. She also had kind words for BMAB's effective First Teachers Program, which trains parents in the importance of reading to their young children and empowers them to do so through exploring issues of cognitive development and the creation of a daily reading aloud ritual.
Dr Robert D. Morrow, retired UOP Professor of Education and BMAB Stockton regional manager, is currently collaborating with community agencies in the county and local school districts' state-funded preschools to develop early literacy programs. With funding from the Frank and Eva Buck Foundation and the Albright Family Trust, BMAB's Stockton team continues to identify ways to introduce and develop sustainable parent training programs for family day care centers, migrant camp centers, and First Teachers trainings.
Since 2006, BMAB has placed 2030 books in 58 San Joaquin preschool classrooms, trained more than 400 parents in their First Teacher's Programs and has assisted 250 parents applying for public library cards.
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