Presenting Smokey and the Bandit

SitStayRead's Hollywood night at Kinowerks Studio was a smash hit! As you can see from Smokey and the Bandit, guests were dressed in their finest for the big night. (Smokey is actually wearing a tux!)

Guests enjoyed food and drinks while touring the facility and everyone was in awe watching The Matrix in the private screening room of the Wachowskis who wrote, directed, and produced The Matrix Trilogy.

Nearly $2,000 was raised at this blockbuster event--all of which will help more kids learn to love reading! Click on Smokey and the Bandit to see more photos of all the fun.

Our thanks to everyone who attended and helped with this event, and a special thanks to Kinowerks and the Wachowskis for hosting SitStayRead in their star studded studio!

A Greater Good For Reading!

We are excited to share that GreaterGood.org has awarded a generous grant to SitStayRead! The prestigious London-based The Economist Group chose GreaterGood.org to fund an education project in the United States, and GreaterGood.org chose SitStayRead as the recipient. Yeah!! The grant of $11,800 funds an entire class of second-graders for the full school year!

We are honored to be affiliated with GreaterGood.org. Click here to check out the work they make possible through The Literacy Site website and be sure to click every day to help us reach more kids in need!

Here's what Lisa Halstead, board president of GreaterGood.org, had to say:

"We're very grateful to The Economist Group for providing the funding to enable us to support an entire year's worth of sessions for one school's second grade. And we are equally impressed with the quality of the program provided by SitStayRead. Through their innovative use of dogs and their dedicated volunteers, they have made an amazing impact on the lives of the children that they serve."

Click here or on the photo above to see the video that accompanied the grant announcement. The furry stars in this video include our very own SitStayRead dogs: Wrigley, Tojo, Spinny, Laverne, Lola, and Charley!

E-Chievement Award--What an Honor!

A big thank you to E-town radio for honoring the work of Sit Stay Read with the prestigious E-Chievement Award. Listeners from around the country send in nominations and we were chosen!

Here's Shandy posing with the award and modeling her snazzy E-town bandanna.

Grammy winner Jakob Dylan was the featured musical guest on the radio show as well--how cool is that? Click here to listen to the interview online.

This is a very special recognition for Sit Stay Read and the wonderful kids the program serves. Many thanks to our fabulous supporters and volunteers for making it all possible!

Fun Packs Instead of Summer School?

An article in yesterday's Sun-Times, "Are books just as good as summer school?", stopped me in my tracks. As if these smiling faces from one of our Reading Rewards celebrations aren't proof enough, there's new research that shows the importance of children having books to read over the long summer vacation.

By sixth grade the "summer slide" in academics accounts for as much as 80% of the achievement gap for low-income students. But not for our Sit Stay Read students--they have Summer Reading Fun Packs to keep them reading and writing all summer long!

Joan Baez & Sit Stay Read

Many thanks to Sit Stay Read supporter Brian Gregory for nominating us for our very first award! And not just any award, but the same one that Joan Baez received just two weeks ago in recognition of her music and activism.

The e-chievement award is presented by the national radio show etown to recognize "people around the country who've found positive solutions to challenges in their communities."

SSR will be honored with the award at the live show in Boulder, CO this Sunday. The show is taped and will air on WDCB 90.9FM in Chicago at 9pm on a Friday in a few weeks. We'll keep you posted on the exact air date for our show--which also features Jakob Dylan (son of Bob.) Very exciting!

Crain's Features Sit Stay Read!

Since the very beginning it's been a goal of ours to have Sit Stay Read in the estimable Crain's Chicago Business and today was the day!!

Not only did they mention our impressive evaluation results, they illustrated the story with this great photo of Demarlon reading to Nancy and Brady.

Be sure to check-out the full article online and share it with everyone!

SSR on "Making a Difference Radio"!

How did Sit Stay Read get started? Click here to listen to Barbara Talisman interview Sit Stay Read executive director and co-founder MaryEllen Schneider on blog radio and find out!

Surprise! Sit Stay Read is Published!

Yesterday's weather was perfect for strolling along Michigan Ave and enjoying the holiday cheer downtown. As we passed the Cultural Center we noticed a sign we couldn't resist--an exhibit at the Tourism Gallery across the street on Randolph--"Sidewalks: Photographs by Charles Osgood and Stories by Rick Kogan". Of course we had to check it out and, boy, what a surprise we got!

The photos on display are from the "Sidewalks" column in the Tribune Magazine. As you may recall, Sit Stay Read was featured in March 2008. Well, look who's now in the latest book, "Sidewalks II"--that's Lisa Wiersma with her SSR dog, Turner! How cool is that!!

Be sure to drop by the gallery to see the exhibit and, if you time it right, you can even join Rick for a lunchtime discussion.

Moved to Tears--In a Good Way

I dare any dog lover, but especially our Sit Stay Read volunteers, to read Joy Butler's incredibly touching story about Shandy and not be moved.

True, I may be biased, but the final paragraph brought me to tears and sent me looking for Shandy for a hug.

Although she spends most of her workday under my desk Shandy still finds time to take new dogs, like Jack here, under her wing and show them the ropes. That's my girl!

Sit Stay Read in Today's News!

We're so excited!

Be sure to pick-up today's Chicago Sun-Times and check-out the great article on the Sit Stay Read program at Sunlight African Community Center! You can read the story here but you'll want to grab the newspaper so you can see the photos of Tojo, Stella, and the kids.

Sit Stay Read Inspires Philly Program

Here's a great story about a new reading dog program in Philadelphia--inspired by Sit Stay Read!

Veterinarian Amy Brenner contacted us after seeing the story on the NBC Nightly News and I was so excited to learn that she decided to jump right in and get kids and dogs together for some reading fun (especially because my mom was from Philly!)

Thanks for the mention, Amy. We look forward to the day the Chicago curriculum will be available so you can offer the full Sit Stay Read experience. Until then, KEEP READING!

See Sit Stay Read on TV!

We were so excited to be included in this ABC-News piece featuring our favorite guest reader team, Beth Finke and her seeing eye dog, Hanni.

The students are enthralled as Beth reads an excerpt from her book, "Beth and Hanni, Safe and Sound" to demonstrate how she's learning to read Braille. After that, Sit Stay Read volunteer, Tara Gaffney, reads the rest of the book to the class and then Beth answers questions from the kids.

Rockin' at Radio Disney

How cool is it that Sit Stay Read was invited to be on Radio Disney?!

Board President MK Czerwiec and Sit Stay Read volunteer Sandy Virtue went into the studio today and taped an interview to air later this month.

They had a great time with Radio Disney dj Adam Welton and Patty Kan (far left). We'll keep you posted on the air date.

Animal Planet Features Sit Stay Read!

Don't miss seeing SSR on Animal Planet!

The folks from the TV show, Faithful Friends, visited a Sit Stay Read program last August and captured all the excitement of our kids and dogs reading together. Here are some of the smiling faces you'll see!

Set your recorder for this Saturday, Jan 24th, from 8-8:30am cst. We'll be in the "Road Trip" segment of the show.

NBC News Features SSR in 2008 Wrap-Up!

There were lots of cheers and tears of joy when we learned that the NBC Nightly News chose to feature Sit Stay Read dogs in their wrap-up of good news for 2008. Wow! And they included all three dogs from the program they filmed---Sugar, Lulu, and Petey. Click on the "Media" label below to view the original story.

Many thanks to all our fabulous dogs and volunteers for bringing the joy of reading to kids in need. Since its start in 2003, Sit Stay Read has helped more than 2,000 children learn to read.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

See Us on the NBC Nightly News!

We're so excited! The NBC Nightly News piece on Sit Stay Read is awesome. If you missed it, it's not too late. Click on the video to view.

Our mailbox is flooded with good wishes and inquiries from folks all over the WORLD (hello Melbourne!) anxious to bring Sit Stay Read programs to kids in their city. We're working on how to provide the highest quality program to kids in need wherever they may be.

Many thanks to all the volunteers, dogs, and NBC staff who've shared the dream of bringing kids and dogs together for reading fun and success.

Stay tuned!!

NBC National News!!

The kids, volunteers, and dogs were all excited to have a crew from the NBC Nightly News visit the summer school program at NTA yesterday!

NBC correspondent Rehema Ellis was there to interview program participants along with NBC producer, Patrice Fletcher, esteemed cameraman, Steve, and his other brother, Steve, sound technician. These incredible professionals put everyone at ease and we can't wait to see the piece on the NBC Nightly News in mid-July. We'll keep you posted on the exact date.

See Our Dogs & Kids On TV!

In case you missed Allison Rosati's special report on NBC5 News tonight, click here to see the Sit Stay Read kids and dogs in action at Manierre School. The story is already sparking lots of interest in volunteering. Yeah!

Many thanks to NBC5 producer Katie Ernst for making the story a reality and giving the kids and volunteers a real boost.

Great job everyone!

P.S. Be sure to rate the video on the NBC5 site.

NBC News Goes to the Dogs

Thanks to the great story by Rick Kogan in the Tribune magazine, Chicago's own channel 5 news heard about Sit Stay Read!

A crew visited the Monday program at Manierre this week and the kids and dogs couldn't have been more impressive. Here's a peek at the dogs getting ready to head into the school. That's SSR volunteer Karen Poshard and Mickey posing for the camera and Gail Schwab's Sara awaiting instructions in front of Bonnie Tucker and Rocky.

You'll have to wait for the story to air next week to see the kids. We'll send an email alert as soon as we know the date.

Great job Manierre team!!

In The News!

Hope you saw the great article (note: link no longer avail) about Sit Stay Read in the Chicago Tribune Magazine yesterday! Rick Kogan and Charles Osgood visited us at Faraday School a few weeks ago for the Sidewalks column and did a fabulous job of capturing the program.

That's Shandy with Rick when he came to the office to drop-off copies of the magazine that he'd promised the students. As you can see in the second photo, they were thrilled to get them this morning.