Hats off to you! 🙌
Our most successful school year, thanks to YOU!
It was an action-packed couple of weeks as Always Dream celebrated the 500 students and 775 family members who participated in the Always Reading program during the 2020-2021 school year. It was a year like no other, but with your help, the Always Reading program equipped students and families with high-quality, age appropriate books at a time when libraries were closed and students were not allowed on campus. Families in the program read a total of 336,622 minutes through their digital libraries!
Here are a few highlights from our virtual Year-End Celebrations we held with each of our 10 school partners:
- Big smiles appeared after Kristi told everyone they would get to keep their digital tablets, continue to have access to the digital library through the summer, and that more hard copy books were on the way to build their personal libraries
- Our Book Coaches announced a new partnership with Khan Academy Kids, a free app that will be pushed out to all tablets and help students avoid summer learning loss
- Kristi read her book, “Dream Big, Little Pig!” and answered great questions from students
- There’s nothing like a certificate with your name on it! All students received a personalized certificate of completion
One family reached out after the celebration to share their experience with the Always Reading program. She said, “Thank you so much for your generosity. This means a lot to me and my kids when there was no access to a library due to the pandemic.” She added a special note for our Book Coach, “Kathy, your coaching was really helpful to me. I learned how to motivate my son for reading and how to hold his attention to the story, and what questions to ask. Now, my son can read by himself (except some long words).”
We look forward to providing you with outcomes from the 2020-2021 program year in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAM
P.S. We had to share this! Nothing warms are hearts more than thank you drawings from our students! How cute are these Kristi portraits from Lake Elementary in Richmond, CA?!
“There’s a little girl in one of our schools who has a very unstable home life. They move from place to place during the week. Despite that, she’s doing well in school and loves to read! She tells her teacher that no matter where they sleep, she always has her tablet and her mommy can read to her every night.” – Kathy, Always Reading Book Coach
Our founder, Kristi Yamaguchi, shares her story of going from figure skating champion to literacy activist on the End Book Deserts podcast. Listen and let us know what you think!
Thank you for your support of early childhood literacy!
