K is for Kids Foundation launches its 4th annual Bring a Book, Bring a Friend for Children’s Literacy Month in February by taking its celebrations out to children living in Immokalee at Farm Workers Village.
Partnering with the Collier County Housing Authority, Northside Kiwanis Club and other community groups, as well as our four guest authors, the Foundation will be bringing new books for the children to keep. Members of K is for Kids’ Teen Advisory Team will be doing face painting for the youngsters, too.
Four local children’s authors – Jenny Craig, Juliana Howard, Edythe Cohen and Robert Dean Bar – will be reading their books and then signing them. Children will be given a free copy of two of the featured books to take home and keep! Many thanks go to the Northside Kiwanis Club for providing the funding to purchase the book “I Am Brilliant” by Jenny Craig and to Juliana Howard for donating her books, too!
The community gathering is being hosted by the Housing Authority and will feature a barbecue for residents and a bounce house for kids. The event is scheduled on February 2nd from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The theme for the event is literacy and “the power of reading.” Atlantis Cars & Limousines will provide transportation to the event for the guest authors, students and organizers traveling from Naples. Seating is limited; call Karen Clawson, founder and executive director for K is for Kids at 239.596.KIDS (239.596.5437) to check availability.
 Pictured above: Third graders got to choose a book to take home just in time for the holidays thanks to Collier County teens who collected the books at their recent Teen “Head to Toe” fashion show in December. The fashion show benefited K is for Kids’ Rising Readers. |
A book drive being organized by K is for Kids will run through February 1st. There are over 350 children living at Farm Workers Village. Although books needed most are for reading levels first through third grade new and gently used books are also welcome for children from toddlers to teens.
 This third grade boy’s face reveals the happiness from being able to select a new book. The students’ media specialist dressed up as an elf and wheeled the trolley of donated books to each third grade class, and later to the fourth graders as well. |
To learn more or to arrange for books to be picked up, email [email protected]. Cash donations are also appreciated to purchase new books for toddlers enrolled in a preschool program and are tax-deductible.
Also appearing at the event will be Collier County Sheriff’s Deputies, Village Oaks Elementary School’s principal Dorcas Howard and media specialist, Stephanie Griffin. K isfor Kids teen volunteers as well as the Collier County Public Library Immokalee Branch will be helping to sort out the books to age appropriate categories beforehand.
Nonprofit organizations interested in participating may telephone Esmeralda “Essie” Serrata, executive director of the Collier County Housing Authority at 239.657.3649.
Guest authors the children will be meeting
Authors appearing at the event include Jennifer “Jenny” Craig who will be reading from her book “I am Beautiful!” It’s a story about three dogs – Sugar, Angel
and Star — who are preoccupied with their looks and the ways in which they don’t look like other dogs, that is until their friend Savannah helps them see their own unique beauty and gifts.
“I am Brilliant!” uses sweet snapshots of the canine characters. Free copies of the book as well as the book “Live Your Power: Tools to Battle Your Inner Bully” geared toward middle and high school students will be signed and given to participants, thanks to a grant from Northside Naples Kiwanis Club.
Visiting Minnesota author Juliana Howard, in Naples on vacation, cancelled a trip to the east coast so that she could share her book with the children. “Catie the Copycat,” illustrated by Howard’s granddaughter, Sophia Heymans, is a delightful rhyming story with an importantmessage for children of all ages about self-worth: Catie is a copycat until she meets the queen in a dream, who tells her, “YOU are the queen. I live within!” Howard will be reading her book and donating free copies to children.
Another story to be shared with older elementary students and ‘tweens will be by author Edythe “Edye” Cohen who will read passages from her book “The Ghetto Garden.” The story follows a young girl living in the Bronx who hopes to transform a vacant lot in her neighborhood into a garden where vegetables and flowers can grow. According to Serrata, this story arrives at a special time as the Housing Authority has been working to find a section of land for residents to cultivate a garden, too. “Last year we talked about planting a garden as part of a local community project, but we had to stop due to the land being slated for re-development. We hope we can move forward with this project soon.”
High school students are invited to hear more adventurous tales about treason and
spies when they have the chance to talk with author Robert Dean Bair about his two books “The Cloisters of Canterbury” and “Peace at Lambeth Bridge.” Bair writes about the experiences of Rob Royal, an Army soldier who is invited to become a secret courier for the president of the United States and other world leaders, joining a group of citizens who risk their lives to fight corruption and murder during the months leading to the end of World War II and thereafter.
 Thank you sponsors, Board of Directors, Advisory Council, teen spokespersons, Teen Advisory Team, volunteers, families and friends
for helping all children of Collier County have the books they
need to achieve success in school and in life:
READERS ARE LEADERS!
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