Read for the Record was an incredible “record-breaking” event throughout Orange County. The impact within the community, OCPL branches as well as our tutors and learners was amazing! This effort was coordinated by Carol Marshall, Americorps Member of the
READ/Orange County Team.
Below are some highlights - More Highlites @ Flickr
At
Buena Clinton Family Resource Center, one of our volunteers was speaking with a mother in Spanish about the importance of reading to her children. Her 5-year-old child popped up and asked in English “can I grow up and be a doctor?” Our volunteer then went on to excitedly encourage the mother to continue reading to her child so that he can realize his dream of becoming a doctor.
A little boy, he couldn’t have been more than 3 years old proudly showed me his brand new library card at
Irvine University Park. Comments from the librarian “The patrons were very happy with the whole thing. …Everyone brought home something to read of their very own.”
At
Stanton Family Resource Center, it was one activity at their semi-annual “Family Fun Friday Night,” which included games, food, entertainment as well as community resources. It was exciting to see families come in listen to
The Story of Ferdinand and create a small craft; 38 families came with 81 children. This event lasted for about 3 hours during which time, we read the story continuously.
At
Mesa Verde Library, we held the event in the Children’s section. We sang songs, read the story and had a follow-up craft activity. Following the story many parents stopped me to say how much they enjoyed the story. Comments from the librarian “one of the parents said to another parent, who had not been to the library before, that a program like this is why they love to come to the library.”
We distributed books and craft materials for staff at
OCPL headquarters to share with their children at home. Nineteen employees stopped by during their lunch time, not only for the book, but also the play with the craft items.
At a family reading time at Irvine Heritage Park Library, 8 families with 10 children were in attendance. One of the families included grandma, dad, mom and daughter. They all enjoyed the story as well as the follow-up crafts; each family member got involved in creating with the craft materials! They were new to this and were excited to learn we hold a monthly family literacy class at that branch. The Grandma told me that she had not heard this story since she was a small girl.
The Final Numbers:
14 Branches including OCPL Headquarters
3 Community Family Resource Centers hosted 4 events
2 Elementary School Class rooms
1 Boys & Girls Club joined with Stanton Branch
279 families
563 Children
54 Volunteers
5 READ/OC staff
Includes 23 READ volunteers, 10 teens volunteers and 3 staff from Buena Clinton Neighborhood Center in Garden Grove, 7 Children’s Librarians, 2 staff from Stanton Family Resource Center, 2 classroom teachers, and 7 volunteers from Boys & Girls Club, Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Garden Grove Police Department, and Housing With Heart/Jamboree Housing Corp.
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