Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Help Operation: Kid Equip Empower Local Students

I'm proud to let you all know that I've partnered with some rad female bloggers from the Detroit area to spread the word and raise money for a really neat program.

The program is with Positive Detroit and Operation: Kid Equip, a metro Detroit organization looking to help provide 25% of Oakland County Schools with dictionaries for third graders.

With the assistance of Operation: Kid Equip and its participation with The Dictionary Project, we will work to distribute dictionaries specifically written for third graders who are at the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn.

Erin Rose of Positive Detroit, Becks Davis of Detroit Moxie, Nikki Stephan of Creativity, Love, Happiness & All That Falls Between , Jennifer Wright of Looking Glass Lane are the other rockin' bloggers participating in this. The initiative is important to all of us because we want to help give the same opportunities to local students as we were given in our writing classes as children. And, we want to encourage local students to become better writers.

Through March 15, 2010, we're working to raise money to provide approx. 2,700 third graders in Oakland County with new dictionaries. To give you an idea of the impact you can make, for a $20 donation, you can supply at least 8 third graders with dictionaries.

Also, an anonymous donor has graciously offered to match donations, dictionary-for-dictionary, up to the first 100 dictionaries. Just think, your donation today can double the amount of children that are being served tomorrow!

Literacy and writing are two things I feel very passionate about when it comes to children. I vividly remember having a giant blue Webster dictionary on our bookshelf as a kid. I would often use it to play a game...I'd flip through the pages, land on one, stick my finger on a word and read about the word and its meaning. I learned something new every time I played! I plan to teach my children the same game with the hopes that one day, they too will understand the power of words.

Children are the key to our future -but how can they succeed without the ability to read and write? A dictionary is the perfect educational tool to start our children on a path toward success.

Here is how you can help the organization:

1. Click here to make a PayPal donation for $100, $50, $20 or $10

2. Mail a check to:
Operation: Kid Equip
PO Box 364
Royal Oak, MI 48068-0364
Be sure to write Dictionary Project in the memo line.

3. Contact menachem@operationkidequip.org to make a credit card or other form of payment outside of PayPal.

4. If you would like to join the female bloggers collaboration, contact Erin Rose at positivedetroit@gmail.com.

About Operation: Kid Equip
As an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit community benefit organization, we realize that to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness, we have to meet some very basic, yet overlooked needs. Operation: Kid Equip acts as a conduit for collecting and distributing tangible educational and school supplies to school-aged children. Operation: Kid Equip effects long term improvement in the community by providing at-risk kids with the core necessities they need to prosper in school and in life. Visit our website at www.operationkidequip.org

About The Dictionary Project
The Dictionary Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The goal of this program is to assist all students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers by providing students with their own personal dictionary. The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come.

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