A cat in a crazy hat, a hungry caterpillar, and a naughty monkey delighted the curious minds of 18 four and five year olds from the Valparaiso Family YMCA. The YMCA Preschool class was invited to attend the kickoff celebration of Barnes and Noble’s Holiday Book Drive on Monday, November 2. Darlene McDonald, Community Relations Manager, welcomed the children and introduced them to special leaders in the community who came to share their love of reading with them.
The festivities began with a reading of Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” by Mike Owens, assistant provost at Valparaiso University. He explained that he teaches college students how to be better readers and writers, and he hoped that he could help the YMCA youngsters with that, too.
Gina Zambori, Market Manager for Reading Tree, read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. “I picked this book for you because it’s my son’s very favorite book, and I read it to him every day,” said Zambori. She told the children that her organization places the big blue bins around town in order to collect books for kids and schools that do not have the money to buy books. Reading Tree also places lending libraries within alternative high schools where students sometimes read below grade level.
The highlight of the day was the arrival of Curious George, who elicited lots of hugs and giggles. R.G. Skadberg, Director of Resource Development at Christian Community Action, read H.A. Rey’s “Curious George Goes to the Chocolate Factory”. The children listened attentively while stealing glances at the “real” Curious George who stood beside him. Before departing, Curious George was showered with more hugs and high fives from the boys and girls.
The children were treated to a cookie and ice cream in the Barnes and Noble Café. Thanks to a donation received by the North Central Area Reading Council, the children were each able to pick out a book for the YMCA Child Care library.
McDonald thanked the YMCA children and staff for attending. She explained that 1.2 million books were donated to the book drive by patrons nationwide last year, and the corporate company donated an additional 100,000 books.
“Field trips such as this are very important to our program,” said Diane Sonnenberg, Child Care Director at the Y. “Today we furthered our mission of building strong kids by instilling the joy of reading.”