Read to a Child Spring 2025 Newsletter

Read to a Child Greater Hartford honors

Shipman & Goodwin and raises nearly $50,000!

Greater Hartford hosted its first formal, in-person event since 2019 on April 30th. This event honored Shipman & Goodwin for their pro bono work in the Hartford community, and their leading role in bringing the Read Aloud Mentoring Program to the Annie Fisher S.T.E.M Magnet School.

This was a wonderful event, including remarks from CT Governor Ned Lamont and Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam. After an exciting live auction and competitive Fund the Need, this event raised nearly $50,000 for the Read Aloud Mentoring Program in Greater Hartford. Thank you to all of our attendees and sponsors for ensuring this event's success, and thank you especially to Shipman & Goodwin not only for your support at the Annie Fisher S.T.E.M school, but for hosting us in your offices!

Thank you for a great Boston Trivia Night 2025!

Our annual Boston Team Trivia Night was held on May 1st at Cask 'N Flagon in Fenway! It was a great night full of fun and competitive trivia, that raised over $13,000 for the Read Aloud Mentoring Program. Thank you to all 15 teams who participated in a night of competitive trivia. The room was filled with energy and it came down to the wire as Acadian pulled out the win and took home the Trivia Cup. Congratulations!

Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible. We can't wait to see you all next year!

Increase in access to diverse books supported by the Guru Krupa Foundation

This year, with funding from the Guru Krupa foundation, Read to a Child focused on supporting our virtual program. This vital funding helped improve the program and increased access to more diverse children’s books for our virtual reading pairs.

This effort benefitted virtual reading pairs nationally, as we continue to offer a convenient way for volunteers who may not otherwise be able to be involved in their communities. The Guru Krupa Foundation grant supported both new and upgraded technology, and helped with general costs of the virtual program, which are higher than in-person programming.

Mukund Padmanabhan, President of Guru Krupa Foundation (GKF), said "The Read to a Child model of pairing an adult with an elementary school child (K-4) for weekly read-aloud sessions is a great one. It addresses learning loss and enables children to thrive by developing a student-mentor relationship over several years."

President Padmanabhan continued, "Those outcomes align well with GKF goals of helping improve education for disadvantaged children. GKF has been providing support for this program since its inception, and we are glad to continue the support this year, to purchase equipment and software to further improve the virtual component of the Read Aloud program." The Guru Krupa foundation's support of our virtual program ensures that students and mentors experience a smoother virtual session–ultimately leading to more reading and mentoring time! We are grateful to the Guru Krupa Foundation for their continued support of Read to a Child and the Read Aloud Mentoring Program.

Read to a Child is excited and proud to share our FY24 Annual Report! Read the report for a letter from our CEO and Board Chair, our financial and program evaluation results, and other heartwarming highlights from Read to a Child's fiscal year 2024.

To see more, find the report on our website here!

Thank You to Our Visionary Sponsors!

Thank You to Our Champion Sponsors!

Thank You to Our Trailblazer Sponsors!

Funding Highlights

Read to a Child would like to thank the following partners for supporting the Read Aloud Mentoring Program. These generous contributions allow us to continue to grow and provide high quality programming.

Arclight Capital Partners $50K (Boston)

David and Martha Kadue $15K (Los Angeles)

Commonwealth Cares Fund $6K (Boston)

Albert O. Wilson Foundation $5K (Boston)

Ellen Abbott Gilman Trust $5K (Boston)

Ernst & Young $5K (Detroit)

Hartford Foundation for Public Giving - Richard P. Garmany Fund $5K (Hartford)

United Wholesale Mortgage $5.1K (Detroit)

The Village Bank $5K (Boston)

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