The Cinco de Mayo event on 23rd St. in Richmond/San Pablo this past Sunday was a rousing success.

The overall attendance at the Festival was huge (event organizers estimated the crowd to be 10,000 to 15,000).   There were lots of families with children, particularly in the earlier hours of the event.  West County Reads was able to generate considerable excitement about children’s reading though our Literacy Village.   In addition to ourselves, our little village included the Richmond Library’s bookmobile and the County Library’s information/library card sign-up table. 

West County Reads book giveaway was once again a very popular component.   By the end of the day we had distributed over 3,000 books to very happy children.  We also distributed countless WCR bookmarks with tips for parents on how they can raise a reader, and the Spanish-English dictionaries we gave away to parents were also very popular.  The interest in these dictionaries suggests we should seek additional funding to enable us to purchase more for future events.  Robin Wilson and I had great help from some Cal student volunteers associated with Circle K and Alpha Phi Omega service fraternities.  One of the students even stepped into the very august robes of the Reading Wizard in our storybook reading tent (Don Delcollo had another commitment, so we had to recruit an understudy). 

Special thanks to Robin (and her husband) for helping to set up and carry out the event.  And thanks again to Prospect Sierra for the books and to the WCCUSD (with the help of Marin Trujillo) for the banners.

The event provided a wonderful “book end” (pun intended) to the prior week’s successful book drive at Prospect Sierra, as the books we distributed came directly from that effort. 

– Kevin Hufferd, Chair, West County Reads

Prospect Sierra, a local El Cerrito private school recently gave a wonderful gift to the less fortunate kids of West County.   As part of their Earth Day public service projects, Prospect Sierra families conducted a book drive for gently-used children’s books for West County Reads.  This is truly recycling at its truest form. 

The outpouring of books from PS families was extremely heart-warming.  And PS formed a book sorting group the next Saturday to help us sort the books to make sure they were ready to get out into the community immediately.  The school’s very energetic band of volunteers sorted 54 boxes of children’s books.   I would estimate this would total at least 6,000 books.   While maybe a quarter of these were books from West County Reads existing supplies (PS agreed to help us sort some prior donations), well over 4,000 books were from the PS Earth Day book drive.  We normally give out about 6,000 books per year…so this has put us on a path to perhaps double that total this year.  

West County Reads had immediate plans to get these books out to families and children that would cherish them.  Just one week after the books were sorted, a large portion were earmarked for the Sunday, May 4 Cinco de Mayo event on 23rd St in the heart of the Richmond and San Pablo.  Other books will be given away as part of our 2nd annual summer reading program in North Richmond.  

I am always moved by the act of families giving a set of children’s books; selected with such love and cherished in shared moments between parent and child, and then passed on (perhaps with a touch of nostalgic reluctance) so such cherished moments can be shared again by other families.  What a wonderful, wonderful thing the parents and children of Prospect Sierra have done!  The West County Reads board deeply appreciates all those who donated and those that participated in this great project.  

– Kevin Hufferd, Chair, West County Reads

The 6th Annual Super Saturday Family Fest, held on Saturday, October 13th, was the most successful yet for West County Reads. This wonderful festival for West County families, sponsored by First Five Contra Costa and the West County Regional Group, was held in a new location (JFK Park rather than Richmond City Hall). Despite the move, we saw some of the largest crowds ever at the West County Reads table. Each year Super Saturday serves as one of the most important venues for West County Reads to interact directly with families from central Richmond and San Pablo. This was true again this year.

Our distribution of free books to children was a real highlight once again. This year we distributed over 1500 books, probably a record. Watching the faces of the children light up at the sight of boxes of books and the prospect that they can select one to keep is one of the true joys of being associated with our program. Boardmembers Robin Wilson, Kevin Hufferd and Summer Brenner were joined by volunteers from UC Berkeley’s Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity to help distribute books and talk to parents about reading resources in the community. And once again, our reading wizard (Don Delcollo) drew many kids in with his narration of various children¹s books in our reading tent.

With the superb guidance and detail of board member Robin Wilson, we were able to dispense over three dozen raffle prizes during our raffle. To qualify, families filled out surveys that gave us more insight into what kind of programming and events they’d like to see in their community, which in turn helps us determine what approaches to take for future events.

We also distributed West County Reads! Posters and bookmarks to the large audience, along with 48 Spanish/English dictionaries and 12 Spanish/English thesauruses, which has received a great response to in the past. All in all, Super Saturday was truly indeed a Super Saturday where there were lots of smiles, and more importantly, lots of books.

Setting up for the big day!

Our reading wizard entranced young readers with his lyrical storytelling

A young reader engrossed in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle story

Another young reader, thrilled with all the literary possibilities that lay ahead.

West County Readers,

In the spirit of community and organization, I just wanted to share with you some photos and details of the summer book drive that took place at Jenny K and Well Grounded Coffee and Tea Bar (6925 Stockton Ave, El Cerrito) two weeks ago.

We were very privileged to be joined by various members of the community and their families, children and parents alike, who all came out to indulge in hot dogs and drinks provided by the incredibly generous Jen Komaromi and Kevin O’Niel. While we were there, we were able to thank both Jen and Kevin for their role in generating more books for the organization to distribute, and their customers for providing us with the books in the first place.

Joining us on behalf of West County Reads were Pat Player, Kevin Hufferd, Robin Wilson, Summer Brenner, Jessica Gill, and we had a special appearance by Contra Costa Supervisor John Gioia. It was a grand old time where we discovered that to that date, Jen and Kevin had collected 2010 books for us to distribute, and we were able to meet more members of the community and tell them about West County Reads. All in all, it was a great and fun evening, and the hot dogs were pretty darn good!

Clearly, these guys are expert book donors.

Hi out there in blog land -

Just wanted to introduce myself as you’ll be hearing from me (mostly) over the next year or so. My name’s Jess and I’m an AmeriCorps Vista working with West County Reads to help get the organization in a place to work towards longevity. I moved from NYC to the East Bay specifically to help out with West County Reads and am super excited about the job. I love reading and I want to instill that love in others, and I think WCR has the means to achieve that goal.

One quirky fact you might not know: I like vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. Though lately, I’ve gotten into cake batter. Feel free to drop by the Bay Area Community Resources office in Richmond, California and bring me some – or books. Or money for the organization. All of the above will gladly be accepted.

Cheers!

This past holiday season, West County Reads was fortunate, once again, to be able to provide books to the wonderful array of programs associated with the West County Emergency Service Provider Network. We were introduced to this network which serves some of the least privileged families in West County by Kate Rauch with Supervisor John Gioia’s office two years ago. Spearheaded by West County Reads Board Member Robin Wilson, this year’s holiday book giveaway was particularly successful. We distributed over 2,000 books to 19 different organizations. A list of the programs is provided below this article.

West County Reads collected the books through a variety of sources. In addition to books we purchased with grant funds we received from the Cloud Nine Foundation and books collected through Barnes and Noble holiday book drives, other sources included Tricycle Press (10 cartons), Uniforms Direct, Inc (Dictionaries & Thesauruses), Glenda Roberts (preschool books). Thanks to the generosity of these organizations and individuals, hundreds of West County children will experience the joy of receiving a new storybook for the holidays. Thanks Robin Wilson for coordinating this great program!

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Books Help Brighten the Lives of West County Kids

Since December 2004, West County Reads! has worked with Contra Costa County’s Emergency Service Providers. ESP is a coalition of 30 agencies supporting homeless, low-income, foster & immigrant families. Some of the agencies involved are Opportunity, Girls Inc., Bay Area Rescue Mission, GRIP, Richmond Food Pantry, Rubicon Programs Inc., Salvation Army and Neighborhood House.

On September 15, 2005 WCR participated in the Back to School Block Party sponsored by the Bay Area Rescue Mission. At this event over 400 students from low-income families received a bag of new school supplies and WCR was able to provide a free book to each student.

On October 8, 2005 WCR participated in a separate, but similar event in Richmond sponsored by First Five Contra Costa and the West County Regional Group. At this Super Saturday Family Fest WCR gave out gently used books to over 500 children from the surrounding neighborhoods. We also awarded new books as raffle prizes to families who participated in a survey to gauge literacy needs in the community.

This past December WCR provided books to the Emergency Service Providers’ Holiday Assistance Program, as we did last year. In recent years, ESP relied on the Marines’ Toys for Tots program to provide presents for these children. Last year the Toys for Tots program was greatly affected because so many Marines were deployed to Iraq and the program was not able to collect as many toys. Because of this need – WCR offered to supply books. In many instances, the books provided to the children were the only holiday present they received.

This year West County Reads! coordinated the distribution of 1,211 books to 19 Emergency Services agencies who in turn allocated the books to families in need for the holidays. This wonderfully successful effort (along with the earlier book giveaways) was spearheaded by Robin Wilson, Chair of WCR’s Book Drive Subcommittee. As with most of West County Reads! activities, the holiday book giveaway was a collaboration of many individuals, community groups and businesses. Special thanks to the following for helping to brighten the lives of so many families during the holidays:

• Barnes & Noble Booksellers – Hilltop Plaza
• Brook Barnum of Tricycle Press
• Half Price Books – Berkeley
• Kate Rauch with Supervisor John Gioia’s office
• Madera PTA
• Pat Player
• Richmond Kaiser Pediatrics’ Reach Out & Read Program
• Summer Brenner
• Virgil Weekes of Richmond LEAP
  

If you wish to support our future book drives please contact Robin Wilson, Chair of WCR’s Book Drive Subcommittee at 510-223-0527 or robinyeewilson@aol.com.

On Saturday, October 8th, thousands of parents and their children gathered at the Richmond Civic Center for a wonderful day of family-oriented activities and resource sharing. This was the fourth annual event sponsored by First Five Contra Costa and the West County Regional Group, a wonderful collaborative of neighborhood parents. Throughout the day West County Reads! helped spread the joy of reading via storybook read alouds, distributing a free book for every child and bookmarks with reading tips for parents, and raffling prizes comprised of bags of new books. We also provided information about literacy resources available to local families.

We also took the opportunity to survey parents about what kind of additional literacy resources they would like to see in their community. The responses from the 157 families surveyed should help us refine our program. It is interesting to note that 43 percent of the respondents filled out the Spanish-language version of the survey.

How many children did we serve throughout the day? We know that it was at the very least 400 and, in fact, it was certainly much more. The 400 number represents the number of children associated with parent who took time to complete our survey. My guess would be that we probably distributed 600 to 800 books at the event.

Many thanks to those who hosted this truly amazing event and especially to the West County Reads volunteers to made our activity such a success…Robin, Don (the Reading Wizard), Summer, and Mary Ann!

Below are some photos from Super Saturday!

Kevin Hufferd
Chair, West County Reads!

Families receive literacy information and free books at the West County Reads table at Super Saturday