Chapter Activities
ALBUQUERQUE
210 Zuni Elementary students enjoyed
a Hawaiian Luau held in their honor because they read at least 10 books
over the summer. EWI provided certificates with each students' or teachers'
name and Hawaiian name. EWI also provided books and 15 volunteers for
all the games at the event. Kids were taught how to hula dance and some
Hawaiian history.
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BIRMINGHAM
 On
Friday, October 14, 2005, the EWI Birmingham Chapter held its 7th Annual
Reading Rally at the Birmingham - Jefferson Civic Center complex. Ten
area Birmingham City Schools participated in this event which was held
as a field trip for the students. Over 550 students and educators participated
in this field trip. This was a major undertaking and once again a huge
success! This year’s theme was fire safety.
Tracy and Buddy Ingleright and their Dalamation dog, Chief,
of Decatur, Alabama volunteered their time to provide an interactive program
involving the children and teachers. Buddy is a Decatur fireman and Tracy
is a teacher at Gordon Bibb Elementary School. Tracey read the book, “Clifford
the Firedog”. Also, several members of the Birmingham Fire Department
along with their Fire Dog, “Sparkie” volunteered their time.
They had over ten exhibits set up for educating the children about fire
safety. It was a very educational and moving experience for all involved.
Lunch was provided for each child, teacher, and volunteer.
All the children were given souvenir bags that contained fire hats, a
stuffed Dalmatian fire dog, and most importantly a booklet that provided
them with space to write their own story about their experiences at the
rally.
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CHICAGO
 2005
marked the first Chicago Chapter reading rally with the Partners In Education
(PIE) Tutoring Program to promote reading to over 400 children/students
from grades 1 through 12. The Tutoring Program has been in operation for
39 years and primarily serves students living in Chicago’s low income
neighborhoods. The event spanned four evenings. Students were asked to
read a book(s) and fill out a brief question and answer book report. 10
students’ book reports from each night were selected in a random
drawing and were recipients of a Reading Rally t-shirt and a McDonald’s
coupon book for a total of 40 children winning prizes for reading. Eleven
Chicago Chapter EWI Reps volunteered to circulate throughout several rooms
in which the students and tutors worked. They promoted the Reading Rally,
wore the t-shirts for the children to see one of the prizes and handed
out additional book reports encouraging them to read as many books as
possible and also gave them the Reading Rally logo for coloring. A total
of 201 books were read during the Rally.
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DALLAS
The Dallas Reading Rally was held at Scottish Rite Children's
Hospital. Activities centered around giving patients something to read
and write while in their room or while waiting on treatments. The Chapter
purchased $900 worth of books to fulfill the hospital library's “Wish
List” request. On Tuesday, October 4th eight chapter members helped
20 patients decorate small shopping bags. After each patient decorated
their bag, the bags were filled with age-appropriate and gender-specific
books, puzzles, crayons, toys, interactive books and games, etc. Supplies
were left with hospital volunteers to make the Goodie Bags for future
patients. On Thursday, October 6th, nine chapters members and their guests
helped the patients make “Me Books.” The patients chose interactive
pages for their book and decorated them. This group also was given age
-appropriate books to take back to their room.
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HARRISBURG
 The
twelve participants children enjoyed juice and cereal bars at the beginning
of the event held at the Harrisburg YWCA. Then shirts and journals were
handed out. The children wrote stories in their journals illustrated with
pictures they drew or magazine photos they cut out. A professional storyteller
told several stories to the children just before lunch. Afterwards, each
child picked out two or three book to take home. Extra food was offered
to the mothers when they came to pick up the kids. “Gently used”
videos and puzzles were left with the YWCA director for their library.
Extra journals were offered to parents or kids with relatives, etc. not
in attendance. Leftover books were given to a local church who will transport
them to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and some were saved for next year’s
event.
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HOUSTON
The Houston Reading Rally was held on October 19, 2005,
at Ripley House Charter School. The book “Is There Life in Outer
Space” was read by State Representative Rick Noriega. Each of the
145 children participating received a gift bag which included a book,
t-shirt and other miscellaneous items.
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HUNTSVILLE
In partnership with the Girls, Inc, located at the Richard
Showers Recreation Center in Huntsville, ten EWI volunteers hosted 20
kindergarten and first grade girls for their Reading Rally held on October
27th. At the beginning of the month the girls were were asked by one of
the volunteers to read every day until October 27, 2005. At that time,
they each received a card to be stamped for each day they read. If they
filled the card, they were promised book. Each girl was successful in
receiving a book. Connie McGougan, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, read "Stellaluna”
by Janell Cannon to the group. Then the volunteers helped each girl write
and illustrate their own book. The girls were then given the opportunity
to read their book to other volunteers. Each girl received a t-shirt,
and a bag that was full of goodies. The girls were served cake and fruit
drinks. Sherry McFerran of Costco donated the cake which was decorated
red, white and blue with the slogan of “Be a Leader Be a Reader”.
Costco also donated drinks for the event. Lara Bryant, State Farm Insurance,
was the photographer for the event.
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