Giving Back Through Literacy & Reading to Kids



As entrepreneurs and business people – or really, as humans – it’s important to give back to our communities. Some people choose to donate money to good causes, which is greatly needed. Others may decide to give in a more hands on way. When I started Zen Rabbit, I dropped the volunteer activities I had been involved in to devote all my time and energy to the business. The plan was to donate a portion of profits to a few causes, so I would still be giving back. Now six years later, I decided to go back to some actual hands-on service.

I’ve always loved reading and have long been involved with literacy organizations. Can you IMAGINE not being able to read? How does one even function in our society without this crucial skill? If you’ve always associated with people who are readers, you may find it hard to believe…

• One child in four grows up not knowing how to read (National Assessment of Adult Literacy)
• More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage. (National Institute for Literacy)
• 44 million adults in the U.S. can’t read well enough to read a simple story to a child. (National Adult Literacy Survey (1992) NCED, U.S. Department of Education)
• 21 million Americans can’t read at all, 45 million are marginally illiterate and one-fifth of high school graduates can’t read their diplomas. (Department of Justice)
• Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or “functionally illiterate.” They can’t carry out simply tasks like balancing a checkbook, reading drug labels or writing essays for a job. (National Adult Literacy Survey)

So when I decided to get involved again, it was just a matter of finding an organization that was a good fit with my time and energy. Earlier in the year, I had started conversation on Twitter with Rich Greif, Executive Director of Everybody Wins! – a national organization that provides reading enrichment programs for young children through schools. But Everybody Wins! doesn’t have a program in my area yet.

Then I went to a tweet-up (where people on Twitter meet and network in person) and met children’s librarian Jeanne Taylor. She told me about the Let’s Read program run by the West Palm Beach Public Library. Volunteers go into classrooms around the downtown area and read to the kindergarten, first and second grade kids for 30 minutes once a week.

The new semester was starting right away and I got one of the last classrooms still available. I absolutely LOVE the first graders I share stories with every week. They are extremely appreciative of story time, as is their teacher. Can I tell you how touched I was to get a round of applause after reading “Where the Wild Things Are” last week?

A typical middle class child enters first grade with approximately 1,000 hours of being read to, while the corresponding child from a low-income family averages just 25 of those hours, such differences in the availability of book resources may have unintended and pernicious consequences for low-income children’ long term success in schooling. M. Adams, Beginning to read. (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990).

The thing is, when you’re completely involved in the joy of doing for someone else’s benefit, you’re not thinking about where the money is coming from to pay your credit card this month. You’re immersed in the moment, living in the now, right where all the experts tell us our power is.

So during this month of gratitude, think about taking the focus off yourself and your business and putting attention to someone who needs your support.

Remembering Bill Mignogna & Living in the Present

I’m just back from the funeral of a friend, colleague, fellow member of the Executives’ Association of the Palm Beaches. I am honored to be a member of Execs and when I was approved for membership a couple of years ago, I didn’t really comprehend how close-knit this organization, and especially this chapter, is. Think fraternity (because yes, most of our 70+ members are men) of business leaders who have each others’ backs at all times. It is an amazing family and thankfully we were there for each other today.

We were all there attending the mass to honor Bill Mignogna and support his wife and family this morning, along with a couple hundred other people. Bill was always ready and willing to help another – kind and generous, hardworking and supportive. I heard someone say this all seems surreal. How can it be? Bill was just here, we were hanging out, laughing with him only a few weeks ago. And then, October 17th, a drunk driver ran a red light and Bill spent 10 days in the hospital. He was 57 years old.

During his eulogy, one of Bill’s life long friends said that this past summer he and his wife had tried to find some time to come down to Florida to visit, but they never did. When the call came last week though, somehow he found a way to get here within 24 hours. We’ve all heard these kind of stories and maybe you even have your own regret in this area. And every time we hear another one, we remind ourselves once again how crucial it is to live in the present and to make the time for the people we love and not put important things off. We dwell on these thoughts of mindfulness for a few days or weeks, and then we go back to life as it always was and we forget. Until the next time something happens that makes us remember.

I’m including this post in my blog today because I needed to express my thoughts. But I also included it because if you’re reading it now, maybe you needed a reminder too. Now, today, before something traumatic or irreversible happens, make the time to do whatever it is that you didn’t have the time to do yesterday.