“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

A reflection. We are energized by the spirit of our team, board, authors and partners who have come together in a crisis.  We are finding ways to support our constituents, who live in some of the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.  

Two months ago, it was hard to think conditions would not be better by now.  Unfortunately, we are still far from normal. 

Our program is now largely virtual–including workshops, literacy calendar, modeling and storytime videos which you can find here: Family Resources. 

Our mission of teaching parents how to read with their children resonates even more now as parents may be their sole teachers in the near term.  We are doing everything we can to be a resource to our constituents and our communities.  

And in the midst of all this, we hope you are well and safe.  

I’m reminded that this date of May 14th, 2020, was originally scheduled to be the celebrated date for our Dinner with an Author gala.  I am also reminded how we are still so affected by this pandemic. Tonight, we would have had 30 esteemed authors, including Ben and Tonya Mezrich, our Literacy Advocate Honorees, celebrating the work of Raising A Reader MA, however, many of those authors are celebrating their work with us in our LIVE! with an Author series online. 

This pandemic has made all of us communicate with one another differently, including those who rely on our program and services. We want to thank our sponsors for their support for our work to end the literacy opportunity gap.  We cannot do this alone.  Your support is even more important now with schools, libraries and programs closed, as we work to reach our constituents through innovative programming.  Although we cannot be together tonight to celebrate Dinner with an Author, I hope you can join us on October 15, 2020 as we have our first “virtual gala.”  

In the meantime, as many of you know, our new virtual LIVE! with an Author events have been a wonderful opportunity for us to share the wealth of our authors.  We are grateful to the engaging conversations we have had to date with Ben and Tonya Mezrich with Kennedy, Rob Cocuzzo with Billy Costa, and Dr. David Sinclair with Heidi Legg.  These past events were recorded and are available here.

“RAR-MA is simply amazing. Please continue to support them – reading is what gives kids a leg up for the rest of their life.” Dr. David Sinclair 5/12/20

We hope to see you all on Tuesday as we continue our series, on May 19th at 6pm EST.  Please join us for a Zoom conversation with social psychologist and bestselling author Amy Cuddy, author of Presence and the very popular Ted Talk, Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are.  Tell your friends.

Be well.

Sincerely, Christine