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member Nancy Loliva, who together with Laura Barba
of ProYouth HEART and Ivy
Ruiz, manager of the Ani-mal Care Center, developed
Shelter Buddies. “The Unit-ed Way Community Support
Grant allows over 100 chil-dren the opportunity to be
a Shelter Buddy, improves
literacy, and helps animals find their forever home.”
Read for Life began a unique program called
“Shelter Buddies” in Febru-
ary, which brings young readers together with
adoptable animals. With the help of a grant from
United Way of Tulare County, the program has
expanded to six participat-
ing school sites for the 2017-18 school year.
Shelter Buddies was de-veloped by Read for Life in
cooperation with ProYouth
HEART and the Visalia Ani-mal Care Center. Pro-
Youth’s after-school pro-gram in Goshen was select-
ed for the pilot program, which ran from February
through May.
On designated Tuesdays, second- and third-graders
from Pro-Youth HEART’s after-school programs
come to the Animal Care
Center on the Tulare Coun-
ty-run Loop Bus to spend an hour reading to ani-
mals up for adoption.
Reading to the dogs helps to bring comfort to
shelter animals, and it nurtures empathy in chil-
dren while improving their ability to read.
Read for Life provides
books to each participat-ing ProYouth site, and the
books stay at the site to continue to emphasize
the importance of reading
every day. The Visalia Ani-mal Care Center provides
humane education and oversees the time spent
reading to the animals. Pro- Youth Heart offers a learn-
ing environment that em-
phasizes literacy develop-ment.
“The program has been successful for two- and four
-legged creatures alike,”
said Read for Life board
Read for Life works toward its goal of providing books to
children and break-ing the cycle of illit-eracy through early
intervention, direct service projects and community awareness.
Read for Life helps reopen Farmersville Library
Inside this report
President’s message 2
Books in the NICU 3
Teenage parents 4
Where your donations go
5
RFL map 6
Donors 7
Parent testimonial 8
agricultural community east of Visalia, has experienced
exactly that for over 10
years. Then in 2014 a Collective
It is difficult to imagine any community without the
resources a library offers.
However, Farmersville, a small, rural and primarily
Impact coalition consisting of Read for Life and over
20 local organizations
called Lea Conmigo (Read
Year-end Report
2017
Shelter Buddies promotes reading, animal adoptions
Continued on page 2
Many parents in Tulare County do not read to their
children because their par-
ents did not read to them. This does not mean that
they do not love their chil-dren. They simply do not
have that model of early reading to follow.
Read for Life is working
to break this cycle by let-ting parents and families
know how important it is
for them to begin reading to their children beginning
at birth.
Children who are not read to during their first
years of life are already behind when they enter
Kindergarten. I saw this first hand as a teacher. I
became involved with Read
for Life when I retired be-cause I wanted to help
change the pattern.
Your donations are used to purchase books
along with Books for Ba-
bies packets that Read for Life distributes throughout
Tulare County. We use these to help parents bring
the joy of reading into the lives of many young chil-
dren. When they become
parents, they will have the model to follow of reading
to their children.
Farmersville children in the Boys & Girls
Club painted these
little libraries, which are placed in residen-
tial areas so people can swap books when-
ever they like.
vices include regular week-
ly programming for chil-
dren, story time, crafts, special monthly events,
community outreach and participation in the Tulare
County programming (Summer Reading, etc.)
Read for Life, Boys &
Girls Club, City of Farmers-ville, Tulare County Library
System, Farmersville Uni-fied School District and
HandsOn Central Valley have been significant part-
ners in developing the pro-
gram. “This unique space offers
a place to gather, to share, to grow and to create,”
said Deborah Lagomar-
sino, RFL participant. For information, contact
Deborah at 625-3433.
Farmersville Library Continued from page 1
with Me) worked to re-establish a Tulare County
Library Branch and develop
community connections to ensure children are profi-
cient readers by the third grade.
The City of Farmersville secured a $90,000 Com-
munity Block Development
Grant from the state for library staff, and Lea Con-
migo was awarded a $40,000 grant from the
Ann B. Reimer Charitable
Education Foundation for a library resource center in-
cluding computers, furni-ture, and books.
Thanks to this amazing monetary support, the
doors of the Tulare County
Library Branch of Farmers-ville reopened in April. Ser-
President’s Message by Anne Fulmer
Page 2
‘Just imagine!
Books can
create magic,
but a library
can become
magical!’
Deborah Lagomarsino, Lea Conmigo
Lea
Conmigo members
and local officials
open the
Farmers-ville
Library on April
22.
Little free libraries in Farmersville
Reading to premature babies is so important,
says Michelle Harris, devel-
opmental specialist and lactation nurse at Kaweah
Delta Health Care District. “You’re spending time
with them. They’re learning your voice. Studies have
lined up 10 moms, and the
babies recognize their own mothers,” she explained.
That’s why Michelle feels it’s important to distribute
Books for Babies packets
from Read for Life to moms and babies in the Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The NICU is designed es-
pecially for premature ba-bies and babies who expe-
rience problems at birth.
“Preemies speak a differ-ent language,” Michelle
said. “They show stress in different ways. They don’t
always cry. Sometimes
they arch their back, hic-cup, their face turns pale,
they breathe fast.” Preemies have to learn
to do a lot of things before
they can go home. Con-necting with their mom is
especially important be-
cause they’re usually in an incubator at
first.
“Babies love to hear your voice.
That’s how they con-nect to the world.”
RFL visited the NICU unit six weeks
after little Joshua
was born. He was 10 weeks early and was
finally going to go home that day.
His mom, Cindy
Almaraz, had visited every day, listening
to the advice of Michelle and other
nurses and doctors. “Cindy is an outstanding
mom,” said Michelle. “She’s
really bonded with her ba-by and has learned how to
care for him.” Cindy said she always
reads to Joshua. It was
engrained in her because her mother read to her
when she was little. Michelle has found that
parents appreciate the RFL
Books for Babies packets, which include a board
book, songbook and devel-
opmental cards. “Parents love the devel-
opmental cards. It gives
them a framework for their babies’ milestones,” said
Michelle, explaining that for preemies, you have to sub-
tract the number of weeks they arrived early to deter-
mine milestones.
“Happily, preemies usual-ly make up their weight
and milestones by the time they are 2.”
Michelle said that often
parents don’t realize the importance of reading to
their babies. It might be their fourth
child, and you tell them about reading, and they
look at you surprised,” she
said. Some families don’t have
access to books or don’t realize their importance.
That’s why Michele is hap-
py to send them home with the RFL packets.
Read for Life gives an annual $500 Pass the Word Scholarship funded by Visalia County Center Rota-
ry to a high school senior who has performed a mini-
mum of 50 hours of volunteer service that focuses on improving literacy. This year’s scholarship went to
Claire Stetson, who worked with the Tulare County li-brary summer reading program. Please check our web-
site for more details. Congratulations to two RFL board members, who
were honored this year: Susan Graves was given the
Ruby Award by the Visalia Soroptimists for making ex-traordinary differences in the lives of women and girls,
and George Pilling was named a Hands-on Hero by First 5 Tulare County.
Congratulations to literacy heroes!
Books for Babies packets help new moms in the NICU
Page 3
Cindy reads to her baby in the
Kaweah Delta NICU.
Our Bright Start Par-
ent Infant Program
would like to thank
you for the wonderful
book donation. In
early intervention, as
we focus on assisting
children to meet de-
velopmental mile-
stones, we realize the
vital importance of
building early literacy
skills. Mimi has been
terrific in not only
providing books, but
also relaying infor-
mation as to commu-
nity events and re-
sources regarding
literacy. Thank You!
Thank You!
Stephanie Caldera Parent Liaison
Bright Start Early Intervention Program
When Ann Brodersen started teaching teen par-
enting classes at Visalia
Charter Independent Stud-ies, an alternative high
school, she was impressed when Read for Life came in
to give books and talk to the young mothers about
the importance of reading
to their child. A couple of years later, she joined the
organization. “When I saw how excited
the students were to re-
ceive the books and how for many, those were the
only books they had for their babies, I got involved
in RFL,” she said. “When we distribute
books to the teen moms,
we give a presentation on the importance of reading
with their young children, not waiting until kindergar-
ten and school. We have
also distributed RFL devel-opmental cards and song
books. As the school year goes on, the girls will share
which book is their child's
favorite or share how their child will crawl to books to
read them and choose to sit on their own and look at
books.” RFL’s Teen Parent Pro-
gram provides three books to each parent throughout
the year.
“We emphasize reading and singing to their babies
daily, putting their phones and tech away each day
for a while and giving their child their undivided atten-
tion. We also tell them to
talk to their babies while changing their diapers,
getting them dressed, feeding them, driving in
the car, walking, etc.,” said
Ann. “We have talked about
and watched several Ted
Talks on the brain develop-ment of babies and how
their brain connections are
‘pruned’ if they do not use it. By the time the babies
are eight months or so, you can tell the ones who
are exposed to talking and books on a daily basis.
“When books are distrib-
uted, the girls are excited and have a hard time de-
ciding which book to choose. Many of these girls
grew up with no role mod-
els for the importance of reading at a young age.”
Read for Life has placed a number of book dona-tion boxes in the community and invites people to
donate their gently-used children’s books so that
they can be distributed to families who don’t have books.
The donation boxes are located at ImagineU Chil-dren’s Museum, Greenhouse Montessori, RFL office
at 132 N Conyer in Visalia, Tulare County Office of Education at Doe Avenue and Porterville Unified
School District.
Pictured is Jody Graves, husband of board member Susan Graves, picking up donations.
Donate your gently-used books
Teen Parent Program changes lives of 2 generations
Page 4
“I wanted to get
involved when I
saw the importance
of RFL in changing
lives with the teen
moms and their
children. When
donors give their
money to buy
books for the Teen
Parenting
Program, they are
changing the lives
of two generations,
the moms and their
babies!”
Ann Brodersen, Teen Parening
Program
Ann Brodersen demonstrates to teen moms how to
read to their babies.
Books for Kids Books for Kids had an incredibly busy year! Our
volunteers processed and
delivered over 4,000 books to 46 sites four times a
year—for a total of 16,000 books put in the hands of
children and families.
Every Kaweah Delta Health Care clinic and Fam-
ily Health Care Network site receives new and gen-
tly used books. Our books are given out during health
care appointments. Books
are also in the waiting room so that children and
parents can spend time reading.
Books from our program
can be found at Family Services, CASA, dental of-
fices, battered women’s shelters, facilities that sup-
port people experiencing homelessness and Grand-
mother’s House tutoring
center in Tulare. For more information,
call Cyndy McBee at 559
623-9066. Teen Parenting & Head Start Promoting family literacy, RFL distributed three new
books per year to children
at 10 Teen Parenting pro-grams and all 20 Head
Start Preschools in Tulare County. We are pleased to
serve over 1,100 children
from birth to age five who received more than 3,000
English or bilingual books to hold and call their own.
We know as parents con-tinue to read to their chil-
dren, their school readi-
ness, communication skills and self-confidence will
improve. For more information,
call Deborah Lagomarsino
at 559 625-3433.
Preschool Programs Read for Life donated 1,300 new books to the
following preschool pro-
grams this year: Bright Start Parent Infant Pro-
gram, Visalia Childhood Families’ Head Start Home
Base, TCOE Tulare Home
Based Migrant, TCOE Mi-grant Education, VUSD Mi-
grant Home Base, the Go-shen Family Center, and
Earlimart State and Migrant preschools.
Mimi Boyd and Rose
Rains also presented to teacher and parent groups
and distributed a wealth of valuable information per-
taining to the importance
of reading from birth on. For more information,
call Mimi Boyd at 559 625-1341.
Books for Babies Books for Babies gave out over 1,000 packets to
new and expectant parents throughout Tulare County.
The packets include a board book, a songbook
and developmental cards.
Packets are distributed to Kaweah Delta Health Care
District Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU); Save the
Children’s Early Steps to
School programs in Strath-more, Farmersville, Tipton,
Poplar and Alpaugh; Wood-lake Paths to Literacy; Care
Pregnancy; Pixley Medical
Clinic and Family Health Care Network’s childbirth
classes in Visalia and Por-terville.
For more information, call Anne Fulmer at 559
303-4751.
Promoting literacy in the community
Read for Life programs: Where your donations go
Page 5
The American
Academy of
Pediatrics has
revised their
guidelines to
include a greater
emphasis on
parents and care
givers promoting
literacy with their
child.
Karen Vanni , who is in charge of the teen parent
program in Porterville, is taking Read for Life on the road. Her volunteers hosted a booth at the Family
Health Care Network Health Fair in Terra Bella and the Business Expo in Porterville.
Read for Life was started in 1989 by five local women concerned about the low
literacy rate in Tulare County. They began by working with a few teen parenting
programs and now supply books and literacy information to over 90 sites. Thank
you to Tamara Lagomarsino for creating this map.
Where are your book donations distributed?
Page 6
brary was coming togeth-er.
“Our board enjoyed the
tour of the Farmersville library last April, and I
think I speak for everyone on our board when I say
that we were quite im-pressed with the re-
sources and programs
that RFL and the Tulare County Library Foundation
are offering,” said board
nan, Karen Carlstrom, John Colbert and Nan Mensinga,
Phyllis Coring, Chuck and
Debra Dichiera, Joanne Carter Dudley, Denise
Fletcher, Patricia Foster, Peter and Ruth Golombek,
Dr. Kathryn Hall, John and Pat Hansen, Janice Helge-
son, Mimi Hoffman, Susan
Kreps, Wayne and Sally Lovejoy, Susan and Robert
Machado, Bruce and Ve-ronica McDermott, Lee and
Lynn Mirviss, Carol Enns
and Don Nikkel, Donna Orozco, Debbie Patton,
Sharon Peck, Rita Peña, Rosalie Powell, Rose and
Dale Rains, Barbara and Thomas Rayner, John Red-
den, Steve and Carmella
Renton, Marla and Ed Reyes, Ed and Becky Rich-
ert, Angie Rizzo, Diane Post and Paul Schommer
MD, George and Judith
Skaff, Donna and Barry Sommer, Drew and Leslie
Sorenson, Mike and Vickie Torres, Carol and Stanley
Trapp, Cassie L. Travo
Other generous donors Aaron and Norma Lee Ave-dian, Joan Avedian, Raj
$25,000 Donation Ann B. Reimers Charitable Educational Foundation
$1000 and up AGSOURCE Services—
Lagomarsino Group, Tom and Ann Brodersen, City of
Visalia, Susan and Jody Graves, Joellen Wilson,
Sharon Woolman
$500 and up Robert and Anne Havard, Doug and Cyndy McBee,
Cydney and Dan Oster, Armida and Guadalupe
Picon, George and Carol
Pilling, Gary and Connie Ruddell, Valley Yoga - Holly
Jones, Visalia County Cen-ter Rotary Club
$250 and up Michael and Mimi Boyd, Tony and Melanie Casares,
Cindy Delain, Mark and Anne Fulmer, Beth and
Stephen Mc Auliff, Deane
Reed, Joy and Rich Sakai, Eric and Kathy Shannon,
Paul and Linda Thomton
$100 and up Donna Bailey, Lynn and
Gerry Beckers, Larry and
Erlene Benevento, Char-lene Blunt, Maryanne Bran-
Basra , Sandy and Paul Bennett, John and Susan
Booker, Al and Jo Anne
Branco, Nancy Bravante, Marsha Brooks-Smith, Wal-
lace & Darlene Byars, Gary and Marilyn Cascarano,
Michelle Chenal-Ducey, Janis and David Christo-
pher, Dayna Crandall, Gin-
ger Curtis, Chuck and Carol Delap, Donna Denham,
Patti Fiormonte, Keren Friedman, Elaine Geeting,
Deborah Goodson, Tom
and Mary Gray, C. Richard and Donna Hamilton, Gina
Haycock, Don Holzem, Joan Huffaker, Mary Ann
and Doug Lawrence, Nancy Loliva, Joyanne Lukes, Alan
and Dorothy Malkasian,
Donna Mekeel, Grace Me-raz, David and Betty Miller,
Patricia Moore , Marie and Milton Morrison, Brian and
Judy Newton, Sandra J.
O'Dell, Phyllis Ogden, Anne Parlier, Marsha Peltzer,
Debra Phillips, Melinda Pill-ing, Monica R. Pizura, Jim
and Bonnie Preston, Con-
suelo Romo, Monica and Mike Rook, Patricia Rosen-
berg, Janet Sward and Warren Sargent, Edith
Thank you to our 2017 donors
Page 7
The Ann B. Reimers Edu-
cational Charitable Founda-tion donated $25,000 to
Read for Life this year to support all RFL’s programs.
Their board first got in-
volved when it donated $40,000 to buy books, com-
puters and furniture for the Farmersville Library project.
In April 2016, they toured the facility and were im-
pressed with how the li-
Ann B. Reimers Foundation donates $25,000
Schroeder, Rosemary
Shelton, Steve and Ruth Sibbett, Rich and Andrea
Sigmund, Phillip and To-ni Simons, Elaine Stet-
son, Don and Jonnie
Stone, Stephanie and Bill Thiessen, Gale Thomas,
Claudine Velosa, Matt and Carole Warmerdam,
James and Virginia Wil-son
member Elissa Watts.
Ann Burke Reimers was a long-time orange
grower in Lemon Cove and philanthropist. She
was a selfless woman
always ready to serve, supporting numerous
local charities.
Each year RFL pro-
vides books to special projects. RFL continues
to provide books for Children's Path to Litera-
cy in Woodlake and the
local Kids 4 Christmas project. This year books
also were given to the Migrant Farmworker
Women’s Conference. If your organization
would like books to give
to young children, please fill out the Request for
Support form on our website:
www.readforlife.org.
Special projects
Adamaris Reyes and daughter Itzel
love to read together.
Parent explains how Read for Life has helped her
P.O. Box 3342 Visalia, CA 93278 www.readforlife.org
Parents ultimately become their child’s first teacher. Teen parent
Adamaris Reyes from the Porter-
ville Prospect Education Center understands this concept as she
reads to her daughter Itzel. “The books from Read for Life
have really helped Itzel. She is not quite three years old, and she
can name all the pictures in the
books we get,” Adamaris said. “Itzel loves to ‘read’ to me! Her
favorite books are the ABC books because she can name all the pic-
tures.
“Thank you, Read for Life, for giving my daughter hours of fun
and helping her to be so smart!”
Board Members
Anne Fulmer, President, Books for Babies
Ann Brodersen, Vice-President
Deborah Lagomarsino, Teenage Parenting
Cydney Oster, Treasurer
Susan Graves, Secretary, Past President
Nancy Loliva, Public Relations Chair,
Shelter Buddies
Cyndy McBee, Books for Kids
Beth McAuliff, Volunteer Coordinator
Karen Vanni, Southern Tulare County Coordinator
Donna Orozco, Newsletter
Teresa Ramos
Rose Rains
Deborah Sierra Retired Board Members
George Pilling, Book Purchaser
Mimi Boyd, Corresponding Secretary, Preschool Program
Rita Peña, Woodlake Liaison
Joy Sakai, Honorary Member
Learn more about us on the web www.readforlife.org
Email us at [email protected]
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