Remembering Elmer Owens

Elmer Owens, First Book SF Board Member, passed away after a long illness on Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

Elmer was an accomplished speech pathologist. He was a kind and gentle man of great good humor who contributed much to the success of Up on Top and First Book San Francisco. He is greatly missed.

A celebration of Elmer's life will take place on Sunday, May 19 @ 2:30 pm @ the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1187 Franklin @ Geary.

Here is a link to Elmer's obituary on SF Gate.

Below are two photos of Elmer in lively conversation with fellow First Book San Francisco Board Member Kathy Katz at a First Book event in May 2010.

Brian 

Elmer Owens and Kathy Katz

Elmer Owens and Kathy Katz

Jamestown Community Center - Preparing Parents To Be Excellent First Teachers

In the first of our blogs featuring the people who are part of our FirstBookSF Community, we chat with Alli Cuentos, an Early Education Specialist at Jamestown Community Center. The Center serves more than 1100 youths and their families in the Mission District in San Francisco. The center offers academic enrichment, sports, leadership training, youth employment, violence prevention and community building programming.

How long have you been operating, and how many staff and volunteers do you have? We’ve been at work for 41 years and have close to 60 staff and over a dozen volunteers. We serve families with children, from birth to young adulthood who live in the Mission. Our services are free of charge and we are a welcoming and helpful community center.

What is a ‘normal’ day like at Jamestown? It’s a mixture of routine -- and being surprised! The ritual of setting up educational materials, art projects and literacy activities and cleaning them all up somehow never seems boring. And the kids and family members are always teaching me new things. Each day I interact with children growing and exploring by the minute and excited families who are eager to support the healthy development of their kids. Included in the mix are meetings with kindergarten teachers, staff at other community agencies and trying to document what I do along the way.

Why is childhood literacy so important to these communities? Early Literacy is a key component of our Early Education Program. We have 75 children a year between birth and age five who attend one of our weekly parent-child groups, our Kindergarten Readiness Program or whose family members attend our Family Literacy workshops. Almost all of our children are English Language Learners and many of them don’t have any formal early education experience. Helping their parents be outstanding first teachers is vital in ensuring that the children be set up for success upon entering the public school system. Having a strong foundation of literacy skills in their home language will better prepare them for success in school. 

Can you tell us how a client or family has benefitted from your organization?

One mother, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, has a 16 month old daughter. She and her husband share a very small room in an overcrowded living situation and her husband works long hours in a restaurant. This mother is incredibly dedicated to the education of her daughter and committed to doing whatever it takes to guarantee the best option for her future. The lively pair attends our Early Education programs twice a week and never misses a parent workshop, literacy event or parent meeting. The mom is constantly asking questions and is hungry for articles and resources to better support her family. Through connections made at our program she has started taking English classes, now has a public library card (inserted link to SF Public Library here) for herself and her child, and attends other fun and stimulating programs around the neighborhood. She has also shared her positive experiences with other recently immigrated moms at the park and brought several of them with her to our program. She now has a decent collection of bilingual books at home and a ton of ideas about how to share them daily with a toddler on the go!

If there was one thing you could say to a potential donor, what would it be?

Celebrating Jamestown's Spirit Day 

There is nothing in the world more gratifying than seeing parents and family members fall in love with reading along with their child. The privilege to facilitate a passion for life-long learning and connections between children and the adults who care for them is priceless. Whether it means purchasing books for distribution or supporting direct programming, this is TRULY the gift that never stops giving.


To read the latest news on the Jamestown Community Center, go to www.jamestownsf.org

Celebrate the Dia de Los Ninos

Sunday April 14 marks the Dia de Los Ninos, an annual event that celebrates children, books and families through multicultural music, dance, storytelling and other fun activities.  

First Book San Francisco members, including BookPals, Children's Book Project, Jamestown Community Center and Project Read will be on hand to celebrate this fantastic event, that kicks of the Week of the Child.  This year, Día is brought back to San Francisco's Mission District, its heart and soul, on Sunday, April 14,2013, at the Mission Branch Library planned in partnership with Sunday Streets.  

The event, which started in San Francisco in 1999, helps to celebrate the diversity in the community and provide a book to each child to help start their own library to instill the love of reading. In ten years, Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros through this annual celebration has distributed over 8,000 multilingual books, 1,500 magnets in English and Spanish with tips for enjoying and sharing books together, over 6,000 book marks using art by local artists commissioned to create positive and diverse poster images for over 6,000 walls in Bay Area classrooms, libraries, community organizations, children’s bedrooms, recreation centers, parks, community clinics and other spaces where children we reach live and learn.

Dia de los Ninos, Dia de los Libros is a collaboration of Mission Learning Center/Reading Partners, KQED, SFPL, and various community organizations throughout the year.

For a full lineup of events, visit www.diasf.org.

Donate to First Book SF This Holiday Season

Give the gift that keeps on giving:

The Gift of Reading!
 

Spread holiday cheer that brings families closer, builds essential skills, and lasts a lifetime.

Our coalition of early literacy advocates works directly with families in need to build home libraries because kids who read succeed!

Our partnership with First Book allows us to purchase brand new books for less than $3.00 each. Your tax-deductible contribution to our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization will provide:
$25.00 donation = 8 books

$50.00 donation = 16 books
$100.00 donation = 33 books

$250.00 donation = 83 books
and will allow us to purchase and distribute incredible titles such as:


To Donate online:
Use the link at the top of our right hand sidebar or
click on the First Book Logo Below

(Please select San Francisco from the Gift Designation drop down list.)

  
To donate by check:
First Book - San Francisco, c/o Jude Deckenbach
368 Connecticut Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

Thanks,
Alex, Ande, Brian, Carla, Elmer, Irene, Jude, Kathy, Luanne, Lynne, Michael, Michele, and Michelle.

A Message from Kathy Katz

In preparation for our 20^th anniversary celebration I have been looking through our stacks and stacks of old photos and letters and endless computer files, reflecting on my many years with Children’s Book Project. What I realized is that It’s the people I’ve met that inspire me ‑— the endless stream of amazing people who work to improve our community. Their concern for Bay Area children and families. Their dedication to the never-ending struggle to keep the social service/nonprofit world alive. Teachers’ willingness to spend additional hours at CBP selecting books to improve their classroom and for their students to take home. Doctors bringing books to free clinics for their patients. Volunteers picking up books for homeless shelters and tutoring programs. And then there are all the wonderful people who collect the books that we can then distribute throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Over 100,000 books donated to us every year. Definitely something to celebrate!
Kathy CBP

 

5:30pm - 7:30pm, Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Latino / Hispanic Meeting Room, Lower Level

San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Let's Celebrate 20 Years of Children's Book Project!

Gentle Readers,

San Francisco's absolutely beloved Children's Book Project is 20 years old this year!

They are too humble to make much about it but we at First Book San Francisco, the San Francisco Early Literacy Network, and San Francisco Public Library are so appreciative of their exceptional work and the profound positive difference they make in so many lives that we are throwing them a party. Please join us and show them how much you love them. See you there, Brian

(Click invite to view at full size)

5:30pm - 7:30pm, Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Latino / Hispanic Meeting Room, Lower Level

San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

Thanks for summer vacations and old friends...disproving yet again that in fact, you can go home again

I have just returned from two weeks of heat and humidity.
No, I wasn't in the tropics.  I was in the lovely Midwest.... my old stomping grounds.  As family lore has it, once I was old enough to know better, I said to my parents, "You mean we don't have to live here?"
The cold, endless winters and long, mosquito filled summers got the best of me.  I moved away when I went to college and never looked back.  Except of course for every year when I would return to visit family and friends.  As the years have passed, both my family and my friends' families have expanded.  I love hanging out with them all and I have to admit, a lemon lime arctic freeze from Dairy Queen is on my top ten list.

This year I experienced an added bonus.  A $5K bonus to be exact.  My friend from HS runs the RBC Dain Rauscher Foundation - the community foundation arm of RBC Wealth Management.  Martha, and RBC has always been a big supporter of the underdog.  When I told Martha about the number of children that First Book - SF LAB gives books to - these books are often the first to be owned by the kids - she immediately jumped on board.  When I got back to SF after my trip not only was the blessed fog waiting for me but so was the check.

Thanks Martha and RBC Wealth Management - you guys rock!  You've made so many kids so happy.