Our amazing WriterCoach Connection supporters have done it again. As of this morning, emails and/or phone calls to family and friends in support of last Saturday’s Read-and-Write-a-Thon have pushed the total amount raised to support WriterCoach Connection for next year to a spectacular $26,7137(!), with $24,535 from the RWAT page alone (check it out here) and the rest from personal RWAT fundraising pages set up by individuals (for example, see Mark Pasley’s here and Karen Larson’s here).
Meantime, coaches and other WCC associates are still sending out messages to their family members and friends, so we expect the total to continue to rise and have set a new RWAT fundraising goal of $30,000 (!!).
The funds will be put to productive use. They will give us a carryvoer into the next fiscal year (beginning June 30) that will enable us to keep our small staff in place and maintain the program. We're pumping out more grants proposals than ever before, but the uncertain budgets at every one of our school sites mean that at a time of year when we usually know what kind of site-based funding we'll have, this year nothing is yet certain. So it's the donated funds that keep our staff in place and therefore maintain the flow of grant proposals and enable us to work with school sites and districts to maximize the chances that we'll have school contracts going forward into 2009-10. Keeping our small staff intact is crucial because outside funders simply won't consider an organization for support without it, reasoning that it's an unsafe investment.
The Read-and-Write-a-thon last Saturday was highly emotional
in ways I think many of us had not expected. Having been immersed in the
fundraising aspect of the event, I wasn’t prepared for the sheer impact of
listening to our dedicated program participants read from their favorite works,
for ten straight hours. It was moving beyond what I can adequately express, and
has already generated plans for a similar event next year. For a glimpse of
what it looked like, go here. Meantime, I'll post below photos of our first reader of the day, CAFL board member and long-time site coordinator (at King Middle School this past year) Kathleen Hallam; the Mighty RWAT Art Players reading Inherit the Wind at about the middle of the day; and our beloved RWAT godmother and godfather, Annie Stine and Mark Pasley.
The really good news is there is another, quite different,
opportunity to help raise funds for WCC, this evening (Saturday, June 13). It’s the first-ever WCC benefit celebrity author reading
event. "Refreshments
and Reading" is a rare opportunity for a personal visit with noted authors
Veronica Chater and Beth Lisick. Veronica is a long-time WCC coach in Berkeley
and author of the critically acclaimed Waiting for the Apocalypse – A Memoir
of Faith and Family. Beth is author of the NY Times bestseller
Everybody into the Pool and the nationally best-selling Helping Me
Help Myself. Veronica and Beth will read from and talk about their
work, joined by three Berkeley High writers. This intimate gathering is from
4:00-6:30 p.m. at the home of Kristina Wolf, 260 Alvarado Road in Berkeley. (Google map here.) Attendance is limited; if you’d like to be there, and I hope you
will, please RSVP to Katie Koelle at
510.531.3257 or kkoelle@peralta.edu.
“Refreshments and Reading” is a wonderful opportunity to talk writing with two accomplished professionals. The event is produced by Community Alliance for Learning board members Katie Koelle and Christine McGuinness, who hope to see you there!
Bob Menzimer
