Dogs for da Bears!

Bears fans all across Chicago are excited about today's big game and that includes our dogs! Sure, they're loyal to the hometown team but our dogs also know that Bears Care is a BIG supporter of kids in Chicago and especially SitStayRead.

Check-out these photos of the Bears with SitStayRead through the years and then email us (info@sitstayread.org) photos showing how your dogs show their Bears team spirit. We'll add them to the album for all to see. (Click on photo for larger version.)

GO BEARS!!

The Year In Pictures 2010

Just in case you missed our New Year's email, here's a look at SitStayRead's Year in Pictures!

Do You Have a Target Red Card?

How's this for an easy way to help our partner schools--register your Target credit card and 1% of all your purchases goes to the school of your choice. Takes less than a minute when you go to the Target Take Charge of Education page.

You can register for any school you like but, of course, we hope you'll choose one of our SitStayRead partner schools (listed below)--we know they'll put the money to good use and you can check on how much has been raised right on the Target page.

Faraday

Gale

Hendricks

Lowell

Manierre

National Teachers Academy

Sumner Academy

Thank you, and be sure to encourage your family and friends to register, too!

SSR Holiday Cookie Walk!

What a BLAST we all had at our first annual Holiday Cookie Walk event! With yummy treats and great company, we all lost track of time and chit-chatted all morning long. Thank you to Anita, Jean, Bonnie, Nora, Kara, and Nancy for celebrating the holidays with us and making it such a fun day in the office!

There was a wonderful assortment of cookies that were exchanged, and boy were they delish! To put the icing on top of the cake (literally), Kelsey brought in snowmen cake pops for everyone to decorate and take home. For those who are unsure of what a cake pop is, in plainest terms, it is cake on a stick! Mixed with frosting and molded to whatever shape you wish, cake pops are a HUGE hit and we had such a fun time decorating our very own snowmen cake pops.

Check out all the fun here, and thanks again to all the volunteers who came to celebrate with us! If you couldn't make it this year, there's always next year. Best wishes to all for a joyful holiday and a happy new year!

First Midwest Bank Rocks!

Manierre Student Authors

The final fall dog visit to Manierre School was such fun! Not only did each student receive their very own self-authored book, but Ms. Ernetta Roper from First Midwest Bank was on hand to make the day even more special.

As a member of the First Midwest Charitable Foundation board, Ms. Roper presented SitStayRead with a grant check for $5,000! That goes a long way towards making the program at Manierre possible.

Ms. Roper, daughter of a school teacher herself, spent the entire hour in Ms. Oceguera's classroom listening to student's read her their stories and helping them edit--doing her mother proud!

Many thanks to First Midwest for their commitment to children's literacy! Be sure to click on the photo to see lots more pictures of the kids and dogs at Manierre.

Celebrity Sighting!

That's award-winning actress Rondi Reed with SitStayRead dog Milo at Saturday's CARE Faire!

Sarah Scott reports that Ms. Reed was quite taken with the idea of kids reading to dogs and would like to get involved. Woo hoo!

Can you imagine Rondi Reed as a guest reader in a SitStayRead classroom? We can! Very exciting. Actors read the book Broadway Barks, by Bernadette Peters to a class of 2nd graders and talk about why reading is important in their profession, as well as to them personally. No telling how many kids might be inspired to become actors!

Goodbye to an Old Friend

That's author Beth Finke and her seeing-eye dog, Hanni, during a guest reader visit to Mr. Groves' class at Faraday last year.

It's hard to believe that it's been three years since I met Beth and the fabulous Hanni at a Barnes and Noble book signing. And even harder to believe that Hanni is now retired. We're so grateful to Beth for sharing Hanni with the SitStayRead students and we wish her lots of fun times and good belly rubs during her retirement.

You can read more about Hanni's latest life phase on Beth's blog post. And we'll be sure to keep you posted on the new canine partner in Beth's life. Wishing all the best to Hanni, Beth, and the new addition.