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Read to a Child's Most Successful Gala
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| Brett Barfield (National Board Member), Shelly Bramson, Ruth Bramson (National Board Member), Phil Harrell (National Board Member), and Brooke Harrell |
On Thursday, November 5th, Read to a Child held its 13th
Annual Gala "A Night in Emerald City" at the Omni Parker House in Boston. We are proud to announce that it was the most successful Gala to date! The event raised an incredible $140,000!
The night consisted of an expansive silent auction with more than three dozen packages, a fun photo-booth, and an exciting live auction! Read to a Child would like to thank everyone who supported the event - including our wonderful sponsors: Agero, ArcLight Capital, Holland & Knight, Cabot, Blackbaud, Posternak, Integrity Services, BNY Mellon, Eastern Bank, Anderson Robbins, Acadian, Eaton Vance, Wayfair, and the Tarini Family.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of our guests, donors, sponsors and host committee members, Read to a Child will enable hundreds of underserved children to spend time with caring adults in order to increase children's success in reading and in life!
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Learn More About Our Locations
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"Above and Beyond" Community Partner Award from BNY Mellon
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Linda Winin (Boston Director of Programs), Vicki Newberry (BNY Mellon Volunteer and Boston Board Member) and Kristen Baxter (Boston Director of Development)
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Read to a Child received an "Above and Beyond" award from BNY Mellon for being an outstanding
community partner. With this award, presented to only two nonprofits in New England, Read to a Child was recognized for its work engaging BNY Mellon employees and for inspiring philanthropic support to improve literacy and self-confidence in children from underserved communities across the region.
At the event in the financial district, BNY Mellon New England executives also presented awards to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, select BNY Mellon employees, and nonprofit partners Cradles to Crayons, Lovin' Spoonfuls and Silver Lining Mentoring for their efforts in service to greater Boston.
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Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, with Read to a Child staff and other award recipients
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BNY Mellon has partnered with Read to a Child since 2004 and has regularly provided grants, event support and employee volunteers to support the our mission. In addition to having employees serve on the Read to a Child Boston advisory board and event host committees, 60 BNY Mellon employees across 4 regional locations currently volunteer with Read to a Child in low-income elementary schools.
"BNY Mellon is proud of our longstanding partnership with Read to a Child and extremely pleased to recognize an organization so deserving of our Above and Beyond award," said Joannie Jaxtimer, Regional Executive, BNY Mellon. "Their mission to improve literacy skills, self-confidence and a love of reading in underserved children resonates with our employees and dovetails with our philanthropic priorities. Not only do we strongly believe that supporting literacy in underserved populations is extremely important for the broader community, but our employees also benefit greatly from their time spent with the students."
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Connecticut
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Connecticut Regional Board Chair, Sean Datcher, issuing a call to action at the event
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Celebrating Its First Ever Fundraising Event!
Read to a Child hosted its first ever fundraising event in Connecticut on Thursday, November 12th: "
An Evening at the Mark Twain House." The event took place at the historic Mark Twain House in Hartford and even included guided tours.
The event
raised an amazing $30,000 for the lunchtime reading program in Connecticut! This marks a Read to a Child record for a location's first fundraising event.
Leadership Change
After more than two years with Read to a Child, Kate Holzman will be transitioning out of her role as Connecticut Director this week. As she moves on to a new challenge, we are confident in the continued success of Read to a Child's lunchtime reading program in Connecticut. We are in the final stages of a search for the next Connecticut Director and we hope to send out an announcement soon! If you have any questions during the interim period, please contact
Kaela Vronsky, Vice President of Program Management.
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Detroit
Happy to Announce Successful Kickoff!
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FCA volunteer Stephanie Kuharik with first grade student Astrid
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Detroit has kicked off the school year with amazing community support and is excited to announce our newest location, Herrington Elementary in Pontiac. "Herrington is the ideal school for our lunchtime reading program with enthusiastic support from Principal Benjamin." - Danielle Hilliker, Read to a Child's Detroit Director
Currently,
Fiat Chrysler Automotive has engaged reading mentors and we are seeking more support from local businesses. Please contact
Danielle Hilliker if you are interested in learning more about Read to a Child in Metro Detroit.
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Congratulations to our winning team:
Team Castle One!
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Trivia Night
Read to a Child in Detroit held their first annual Trivia Night
sponsored by Level One Bank on September 23rd. It was a great night filled with friendly competition and local teams showing off their trivia knowledge: Team Castle One (from Level One Bank), Team Kaczmarek, Team Big Brains (from Carat), Team E&Y (from Ernst & Young), and Team Font of Knowledge (from Fontinalis).
Congratulations to our winners, Team Castle One!
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Welcome Lockton Companies to Sunrise Elementary
We are excited to welcome nine new reading mentors from Lockton Companies to the lunchtime reading program at Sunrise Elementary in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. We thank Greg Barnes, partner at Lockton and our newest Los Angeles regional board member, for his leadership and support.
10th Street Elementary Parent Literacy Workshop Presented by Read to a Child
We were pleased to host over thirty parents
at our first parent literacy workshop at Tenth Street Elementary on October 23.
The workshop covered such topics as the importance of parents reading to their children at home, what books to choose for their read alouds, and how to make the most of their reading time together. Grade-level literacy tips were distributed to parents, along with books for them to take home. We hope to replicate this workshop at our other schools in Los Angeles.
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South Florida
Volunteer Spotlight
Debbie Platt is a longtime volunteer from Assurant, one of our most dedicated corporate partners in Miami. Ms. Platt is also one of Read to a Child's Regional Board Members in South Florida. Here is what she had to say about volunteering in the lunchtime reading program.
"Having been a part of this community since 1948, Assurant takes its role very seriously in how we support our neighbors. Assurant is pleased to support Read to a Child and share in their mission to bridge the literacy gap through their lunchtime reading programs.
I have been a volunteer with the program for 8 years and have been paired with 5 different children. I love the program and the relationships that I form each year with my kids. Sometimes, you just don't want to go because of work or other things that come up, but once you do, it brightens your day and you're happy you did."
2nd Annual Fundraising Event in Coral Gables a Success!
Read to a Child held its 2nd Annual Miami Fundraising
Event at Books & Books in Coral Gables on September 9th.
We were proud to be able to showcase the power of the program through the moving words of our special guest, award-winning author Christina Gonzalez.
We would like to extend a special thanks to the generous supporters and sponsors:
Assurant,
Children's Trust, Holland & Knight, Greenberg
Traurig, Stuart Gitlitz, Books & Books, Ian and Cory Ross, and Sunset Wine and Liquors.
To see more pictures from the event, click
here.
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Upcoming Events & Campaigns
SAVE THE DATE: 3rd Annual Digital Campaign - March 2016
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Copyright © 2013. Read to a Child. All Rights Reserved.
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