Magazine Literacy Bee

I deliver magazines to a bakery training program for inner city . When I walk into the cafe with a large bundle of Gourmet, Cooking Light, Saveur, Food and Wine and /or Eating Well they all exclaim from behind the counter: "Look, the magazine lady is here.!!! PUre music to my magazine ears. Who knows, one day through the combination of their training and practical work experience coupled with the engaging articles they could land their own cooking show!!!!! In the meantime I will continue to deliver magazines filled with
mouth watering photos of everyting from Lobster stew to Wild maine blueberry crisp they are hooked on reading the recipes and articles in the magazines. so fellow foodies please confinue with your generous contributions of food magazines

earlier this year on one of my biweekly deliveries to a family shelter in Boston I was able to speak with a young mother who had returned from taking her 4 month old son for a walk on a beautiful day. When she saw the large bundle of magazines I had she smiled and said , "you are the magazine lady'! I said yes and asked if she would like some. She was thrilled and she said she was moving out of the shelter very soon to her own apt with her new son so she would love the Parenting magazines and decorating/ home magazines. One might never think when donating a magazines to a homeless shelter that they would be welcomed there but by taking time to speak w/ this young Mom I was able to connect her w/ magazines that were of interest.

I always want the magazine to be a source of comfort and knowledge to the new readers so contiually ask for feedback from the families and staff at the shelters . When I handed a recent issue of Parenting magazine she noted the caption of an article on the cover "How to raise a polite child: and that caught her eye. She said that is so important to me so thanked me again for the magazines.

I could tell from speaking to her that she and her son where headed for new beginnings and knowing how happy she was at receiving the magazines once again solidified the importance of my efforts.

I deliver womens and childrens magazines to a shelter a few miles from my home that is home to over 60 families. Today I had the privilege of meeting a young Mother and her 4 year old daughter who was playing hopskotch. I introduced myself and asked if her daughter would like a magazine. She was very appreciative and said her daughter would love it. The little girl was so pleased to show me how she could write her name on the label on the cover. I drove away with a smile seeing the smile on her face. My mission is to make sure every child in every shelter has that chance.

Take a look at this feedback received from children in a Massachusetts domestic violence shelter.

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!

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 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!

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.

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.

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.