Celebrating Nutrition During National Reading Month
Date: March 14, 2019
Location: Arlington, VA
RIF and Nestlé joined forces for two special occasions in March, bringing the joy of reading to children in Arlington schools while highlighting the importance of health and nutrition. As part of this partnership, book collections on health and nutrition were donated to each of Arlington Public Schools’ elementary schools. Special literacy celebrations were held at two spotlight schools where the full student body at each school was able to select 3 books to build their home libraries. Over 1,400 children selected more than 4,300 books as part of these special book celebration events which also featured read-alouds and crafts.
LESSONS LEARNED
Corporate employee volunteer opportunities are a great way to deepen collaboration with a funder and help them experience hands-on service and see firsthand the impact of their funding
A book celebration event can take any shape. This one followed the model:
- The group of students participating in the event gathered in the school library
- A featured read-aloud book following the event theme was read by a corporate employee volunteer
- Book selection by children with additional event swag given out
- A craft project was completed after the students returned to their classrooms
- Event activities were recorded and webcast out to other classrooms not participating in the spotlight event
- Remainder of the school’s classrooms visited the school library throughout the day to also select books – like a free book fair
