Magazine Literacy Bee

Stop by to see us promoting our KinderHarvest magazine literacy recycling program at the Princeton Whole Foods Market this Saturday from noon to 4 PM. We'd love to see you there.

Whole Foods Market
(On Rt. 1 near Market Fair)
Saturday, April 12th
Noon - 4 PM
3495 Brunswick Pike
Princeton, NJ 08540
609.799.2919

Also, we are building our Central New Jersey KinderHarvest teams now, based on lessons learned over the past year. Be in touch if you want to be involved.

Join us to change the world... one magazine at a time!

Cheers!

Listen

...Oh my goodness, another just heartwarming, wonderful interaction... I just dropped off magazines at a women's shelter... they happened to be having dinner, and this little boy was talking to the woman I was giving magazines to and she was saying the women love the magazines and this is great...

And, this boy came up and I introduced myself and said, "Hey, how old are you?"... and he said, "I'm in the second grade, but I should be in the third grade."... and I said, "Do you like magazines?"... and he said, "I LOVE magazines!"... so I said, "Do you like nature?"... and he said, "I DO!"...and so I, of course, ran out to my Jeep, and gave him four Ranger Ricks, because he told me he loves frogs.

Oh my gosh! I almost started crying every time... just because, you know, I think... here he was as part of a family that was part of domestic violence, but yet now, he is just so happy when he sees the magazine and the woman even said to me, "Oh, I'm sure he is going to take them to bed tonight."... and he has a little brother, so he told me he was going to give his little brother a magazine too!

I was emptying out our Whole Foods bin here in Princeton and a shopper came out of the store and started grabbing magazines for an elderly homebound friend, exclaiming "She'll love these Oprah magazines!" I never imagined such a direct benefit of our recycling so close to the core needs and hearts of consumers and new readers alike.

I am getting more and more excited about the real involvement stages of holding this drive. I have been planning and trying to get volunteers, donors, and charities in line for a few weeks now and I am really hoping everything comes together.

When we were finally able to sort out our computer woes and send an email to the Pace publishing community, students, faculty, and even some companies responded. All want to get involved on some level. This is wonderful news!

As the publishing community, I believe we should be aware of and involved with issues of literacy because reading is our industry. For me, reading has been so much more than just a tool to get by, it is a real pleasure, and I want to share that joy with others. My love for language is what brought me to publishing, and that is shared among professionals in the field. We should step up and help individuals struggling with words to see the potenial for language and reading as a way to expand their minds and as a fun activity.

I have been setting up contacts with charities this week as well, and hope to have that finalized very soon. There are four prospective literacy programs that I would like to have participate, but at this point I am unsure if all of them will do so. I am planning to run our drive in the local community November 1-29, so we are getting ready to approach sites this coming week. My next challenge is to find and decorate boxes!

Best,
Elizabeth

I know that when you organize a campaign such as this, you are bound to run into problems. My problem is my computer. I have the Vista operating system which is not compatible with many others. How is this relevant?

I sent off information about the magazine drive to the head of our department here at Pace last Friday to get the school officially involved. Nobody in the office was able to open the file I sent. I found this out when I emailed them to see if we would still be moving forward with the project. In effect, I have lost five valuable days of potential participation from my entire school department. It is still before the tentative dates that I would like to go full-force, but support from within would be a great help, and I will need some time to get volunteers signed up just to help with the orgainzational aspects, including scouting out sites, putting collection bins out, and getting the magazines ready to go.

I also spoke to one of my professors who works at Time, Inc. She will be looking into back issues and contact information for me, which could turn into a huge reserve of magazines. We shall see.

Take the good with the bad and always have a back-up plan!

Best,
Elizabeth

Hi! I have to admit that this is my first blog and I don't even know where to begin. I want it to be beneficial to many people and in many respects, so I guess I will just tell you a little about me and what I am trying to do in my community.

My name is Elizabeth, and I am a graduate student at Pace University in the MS Publishing program. When people ask me what this is, I explain it as a specialized business degree in the field of publishing. We learn about all aspects of business that make magazine and book companies successful, and now online content as well. (Blogs are actually a huge part of this!)

What I am aiming to do is host a KinderHarvest magazine drive for literacy in my area, which is New York City, and to do so very soon. At this point in time, it is just me. I have one other student in the program who plans to be involved. I won't mention this person yet, although I am very grateful to know that I have support waiting for me when I am ready to move forward. This will happen tomorrow, I believe.

I sat down and really gathered my thoughts tonight.

I think that what I did would help you if you want to start something like this in your area but are unsure of where to begin. I went to the KinderHarvest link on the Magazine Literacy website, magazineliteracy.org, where there is a helpful list of steps to start a drive. Then, I sat down and really applied these.

I researched programs in my area that would be good candidates to receive the magazines collected by the drive. One aspect that I love about this program is that the benefits stay local! I did not realize this until I sat down to pick out the charities our magazines would benefit. I tried to focus on programs that emphasize literacy promotion as part of their core philosophy; however, that is my personal choice.

Next, I thought of all the places where I would be likely to drop off extra magazines as potential collection sites because I frequent those places or because magazines are sold there. Supermarkets, bookstores, pharmacies, libraries, and local schools are givens. But what about Starbucks? Target? My campus bookstore? Doctors' and dentists' offices always have extra magazines. I could call them to see if volunteers could stop in and collect them.

I also had questions come to mind about this program that I felt are as of yet unanswered, but I was able to put a name to these questions, group them, write them out so that I know what answers I am seeking and whom to ask.

I will get more into that next time. I suppose this is a pretty good introduction of where things stand. I will say this. It is October 3rd. I hope to put this on the last two weeks of this month, and I believe that it will be organized and successful.

All the Best,
Elizabeth

It's best to know where the recycled magazines will be dropped off and to get an idea of the needs of your recipient agencies prior to organizing a KinderHarvest collection. That way, you know you can bring them to new readers and donors will be interested in knowing where their recycled magazines are going.

I called a few organizations in the Trenton area to ask if they would be interested in magazines from our KinderHarvest collections at Starbucks and Whole Foods. A couple said yes. Now I've visited the Homefront program that provides transitional services to homeless families and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) to meet with their directors and literacy staff. Each explained their programs and needs so that I can better organize the magazines that our KinderHarvest program delivers. There will be future planning meetings as well, and we will stay on the lookout for new shelters, food pantries, senior centers, and other programs.

It's good to serve a variety of agencies with different needs. Where one may want to target certain types of magazines to certain programs, others can use magazines of all kinds. This will help you to make sure that all your magazines are put to good use by new readers.

So we've just started wrapping up our attempt to plan a magazine drive in San Francisco. Sadly, our efforts did not go as smoothly as expected, but we don't plan on our work being in vain. That being said, here's an account of how our afternoon went!

- each of us shared our first/favorite memory of reading. This gave us a sense of what literacy meant to us.

- we had posters labeled: "Who?" "Where?" "How?" and "What?". The "Who" covered who would benefit and/or is in need of magazines. This group scoped out and contacted groups that would potentially receive donated magazines. The "Where" covered where we could place collection bins. This group scoped out and contacted businesses/locations that would potentially let us set up collection bins. The "How" covered what steps needed to be taken to actually implement our project. The "What" covered what would be written in our blog post. We did the "How" and "What" together as a whole.

- we were surprised to find that many agencies (boys & girls clubs, ymcas, etc.) did not want magazine donations. Some said it was because they just usually didn't receive them, and others were "going green" and didn't want to store the magazines.

- when trying to find places that would donate the magazines and/or host collection bins, we were at first disheartened to get rejected by a bunch of bigger businesses who could not host bins due to different "legal reasons". Other businesses did not have the necessary authority (owner, manager, etc.) on hand to give us an answer. Fortunately, when we started calling salons and dentist/doctor offices, they seemed more than happy to have us pick up old magazines. We all agreed that people planning on making the drive a reality should plan on contacting businesses like these first.

Though short of a victory, we hope that our notes will help those interested to know what does and doesn't work!

*******we will send pictures of our day later tonight!*******

KinderHarvest collection boxes will soon be seen in Springfield, Illinois area businesses to bring magazines to the students in the elementary school libraries. We currently don't have money in our budgets to purchase magazines for the elementary school libraries so this is a terrific way to get them into the hands of the children. The students can look at them while in the library and when enough are collected, they will be able to take one home with them. My hope is that PTO Members from the elementary schools will pick up, count and sort the magazines for each of their schools. Soon I will be posting which businesses will be hosting collection drop off boxes. Please join us in helping to get magazines into the hands of children in our schools. It's an exciting way to get children READING, freecycling gently used magazines for kids!

This letter that I received from the staff at the Boston Family Shelter demonstrates the value of the KinderHarvest magazine recycling program. I am continuing my work to collect and deliver magazines to this program, as well as to a nearby Boys and Girls club and also to a program that has been helping the elderly for over 100 years.

Since Katie started dropping off magazines to our shelter the children really enjoy reading the magazines. When Katie stops by the shelter and drops off the magazines I put labels on them with the children's name on them to make the magazines personalized. Katie thank you, for the labels. All the children love the magazines. Even though some of the children have moved into housing, they still come back to the shelter to look for the magazines.

There is a 9-year-old third grade boy that resides at the Boston Family Shelter. He was in the shelter for about 2 years. He has been reading below grade level for the past 2 years. He is an excellent reader, he just cannot comprehend what he reads. The first day this boy received his magazine, he said, "Wow!! Cool!!" He began to start reading as soon as he picked the magazine. I was so surprised to see him reading, because he always told me how much he hates to read. About two days later, he told me how he would read his magazine at school during quiet time, and he would let his friends read the magazines also. He reads to his 3-year-old sister more often, and now he is comfortable reading out loud.

The magazines have given this child more confidence. Before the magazines, he would skip over words instead of sounding them out. Now, when he reads, he sounds out the words. Even though he is going to summer school, his reading grade level for the last term went from a D to a B+. That is a great improvement.
The boy’s mother is extremely happy to see he is finally starting to read. Sometimes it is still hard to get him to read a book. When he goes to the library he takes out magazines.

This new beginning is a absolutely amazing for this child. We hope he will continue to improve the next school year. We at the Boston Family Shelter would like to thank Katie and all organizations that donate magazines to our shelter.

Maria
Boston Family Shelter

I am focusing on the essentials now before planning an actual Magazine Drive.

**Naomi's Cottage, a shelter for abused women, in Atlanta, have agreed to become receipents of our magazines.
**A member of the Women's Federation of Atlanta, have agreed to help with pick up's through out the city, once we locate where the drives will be.
**Located free short term storage of magazines, before distribution.
**Have located several other volunteers willing to help pick up the collected magazines, on a routine basis, through out the city.

I am in the process of setting up meetings with various agencies to discuss how this program can enhance their objectives.
Once I have determined who will be receiving the magazines, I will then pursue company's and retailers to host drives.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!!

I just spoke with a gentleman who heads the town recycling efforts; recycling is mandatory. So we just had a long chat and I was asking him about different ideas for posting information about KinderHarvest, and he said my best bet is to talk to the director of the whole library system. So, I am going to be in touch with him early next week. He said they get rid of so much paper at the library - books and magazines - and he said that the director is very environmentally conscious. He said that he would also be happy to help me out with doing some kind of posting on their website so that everyone in the community could maybe see the KinderHarvest flyer, and perhaps we could say rather than put the magazines in your blue bin, bring them to a location that I could work out with this gentleman, and do it that way.

I was pretty excited because it's a huge and prosperous town; a lot of people have families, so I think that would be really good to spread the word that way.

Another quick thing... my friend just emailed me that she put up a posting at her babysitting co-op, and I think that reaches out to about 100 mothers. I ordered a copy of the generic KinderHarvest flyers so she could also post that at her other child’s babysitting website

So magazines coming from everywhere!

The Princeton Dental Group has joined KinderHarvest and will recycle their magazines to support nearby community literacy programs in New Jersey. An important consideration for the office is that the magazines are picked up on a regular and timely basis. This is also best for the children and families who will be receiving that magazines, so they can enjoy reading current information.

Whenever you enter the beautifully appointed and comfortable lobby of the Sunny Garden Chinese Restaurant in Princeton your are always warmly welcomed. It's a favorite eatery with a menu well-known for fresh, delicious, and healthy dishes. You'll also find a wonderful portfolio of magazine available for your reading pleasure, including National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and People.

Sunny Garden has joined KinderHarvest to recycle its magazines for reading by children and families in local shelters and literacy programs.

We in kindergarten are only halfway through our magazine drive, and I'm pleased to say that our box for collecting them is full! With two weeks gone since this all started here at Creative Arts Charter School and two weeks to go, it looks like we'll easily reach our target numbers. What a great feeling it gives us to be taking action, for the children and adults alike. Plus, the students in my class are broadening their understandings, getting a hands-on lesson in the issues of conservation and homelessness. The latter problem, especially, has touched many of the children. Although it would seem impossible not to notice such a thing in San Francisco, a five- or six-year-old growing up here can be quite insulated, and may not have actually given it much thought. A magazine drive like this not only opens young eyes to the plight going on right now outside in our neighborhoods, but shows them how crucial it is to care. In my view, what better education can we provide?

Kindergarten is hosting a KinderHarvest Magazine Drive! We are collecting "gently used" copies of magazines for kids like "Highlights," "Ladybug," "Click," "Spider," "Your Big Backyard," etc. and donating them to local organizations that serve homeless youth and families. Please deliver your gently used kids magazines to Ron's kindergarten class by Friday, June 8th. Help us care for homeless children, promote literacy, and conserve paper--all at once! Thanks, Ron and the kindergartners.

Today, I visited Shelter, Inc., which provides housing options and other supportive services to homeless families, to discuss whether and what magazines would be helpful.

I didn't want to go empty handed, so brought along magazines that I have already collected, including a wonderful donation of National Geographic kids.

The staff were thrilled with the magazines and they gave me a list of all the family homeless shelters in Boston (of course, I wish none were needed), and some more ideas to follow-up on.

There is a wonderful organization, Cradles to Crayons, that provides children with everyday supplies such as clothing, shoes, books, school supplies, and toys.

They also suggested that I contact ReadBoston.

In order to get the word out to my kindergarten families, I am utilizing the all-important classroom newsletter. There, I can not only let parents know about the upcoming magazine drive, but also show them how a KinderHarvest Magazine Collection relates to our current curriculum. Here is an excerpt from my current newsletter: "In talking about problems society is currently facing in protecting the environment, the main thing we want the children to understand is the importance of being positive and proactive. Classroom activities like Help Save the Earth Follow the Leader, repeated readings of Trashy Town and The Lorax, even sorting their waste after lunch teaches them that individuals can make a difference. To emphasize this, we will culminate our school year by taking action. Our classroom has begun composting, officially placing it on the job chart. We are learning about the properties of various objects while separating them (like recyclers) in our science focus on Garbage Dumps. To promote local wildlife, we will be hanging the birdhouses we made around the schoolyard. At the next Town Hall meeting we will talk about keeping the schoolyard clean, and provide Litter Getters for all the classes in the school. And best of all, we are volunteering for KinderHarvest. Basically, this is an organization that advises volunteers like us on how to keep gently used kids magazines from getting thrown away, and instead find ways to get them into the hands of homeless children. To contribute, you can bring any copies of Ladybug, Your Big Backyard, Click, Spider, Highlights, or any other magazines appropriate for children to our Kids Magazine Drive in the classroom by Friday, June 8th."

I have set up a meeting with Shelter, Inc. in Boston to see if donated magazines would be helpful and to determine what their needs are.

I have also begun reaching out to locations that will donate magazines, including a dentist office where, in addition to collecting the magazines they are ready to discard, staff are willing to bring in magazines, such as Highlights from home.

I volunteer with a Boys and Girls club where there seems to be a very keen interest by the children in having their own magazines. The staff thought it was a great idea to bring magazines for the children to read.

Dear interested readers,
We have contacted several local organizations with the hopes of finding recipients for the magazines our kindergarten class collects during our upcoming school drive. So far we are concentrating our efforts on those agencies that serve homeless kids and families. In contacting these places, we've discovered some important decisions we've had to make about our drive, such as exactly what age group we hope to serve, and how important the actual magazine content is. We hope to speak further with each organization soon to put a plan into action. On the other end, we are in the planning stages for our school magazine drive--how and where to advertise, and to what extent the kindergartners can be involved in the process--the creation of posters and flyers, delivering announcements at school assemblies, receiving and organizing donations, pasting labels, inserting thoughtful messages into delivered magazines, etc. etc. What an incredible opportunity my students have!

As a volunteer with a 3 year program for 6,7,8 grade inner city youth with focus on literacy, life skills and tennis here in Boston, as well as helping out at a local elementary school and boys and girls club, I see the need for getting interesting reading materials to children every day. I also want to focus on helping shelters and food banks because that seems to be a very dire need.

Here are some of my initial ideas and efforts:

• I have a preschool teacher friend who agreed to have a collection bin for magazines. Many of the parents have older children so I am hoping they have subscriptions to donate.
• I have another friend who is an elementary school Principal who will share Highlights magazines.
• I have made contac t with the children's room at the local library, which agreed to share their older copies of magazines with children. I picked up Ladybug, Babybug, Cricket and Cobbletone.
• I have a contact at a nearby hospital that receives monthly mags that they will donate when they are ready to discard them.
• I will also asked a friend who is part of a babysitting co-op to reach out to a huge audience via email to ask if they would donate magazines.
• I will also check with the local supermarket and pharmacy to see if I can set up a magazine drive.

I have contacted several pediatric dentists office in the area and my own dentist have been quite generous in offering to donate their Parents and children's magazines from their waiting room and even the staff offered to send their gently used children's magazines.

Hi everyone! My name is Ron Buchanan and I teach kindergarten at Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco. Recently, my class has been doing a lot of science work in the area of ecology and recycling, so I was trying to figure out a good field trip to support that. Visit a recycling center? A neighborhood garden with a composter? Or perhaps pick up trash at the beach or a nearby park like Alamo Square? Nothing seemed to be working out, at least nothing with some real zip. So I tried something new--last Saturday I hooked up with VolunteerMatch.com and posted that I was interested in helping the environment. Right away they had me linked with the KinderHarvest program, which provides a route for helping us get our schools' and families' "gently used" magazines to local homeless kids and youth. I exchanged some emails with John Mennell, who right away was very enthusiastic about letting my class spearhead this effort within our school community. John also proved very helpful and responsive in providing me with the basic information on how to get started. Really, he has made it very easy. So right now, with the valuable assistance of my gem of a student teacher, Erin Carder, we are currently looking into local programs that service homeless kids and families. I even mentioned KinderHarvest to my students yesterday at dismissal time, and they seemed genuinely enthusiastic to get involved. It's very exciting to think that my students will be getting a unique, hands-on experience in helping reuse products, and thus "saving the earth" in their own small way. Also, they will get the added bonus of actually being able to help in some small way those who need it, which I am sure will be a real awareness-raiser as time goes on.