by Patty Huber
Patty Huber is the director of Groupon Grassroots, Groupon’s philanthropic arm. Grassroots has raised over $3.7 million for local projects across more than 904 campaigns to date.
My daughter, Vivian (AKA Baby Mo), is about to turn 1 in August. As all babies do in their first year of life, she’s grown up so fast and changed so much with each passing month. Reading together at bedtime is the one ritual that we’ve kept consistent through this past year.
That’s why I was excited when several months ago Jumpstart invited me to observe its early-childhood program in Rogers Park, a diverse neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago.
Jumpstart recruits and trains undergraduate college student volunteers to teach reading to preschool-aged children from low-income neighborhoods. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved: the college students gain leadership skills through hands-on service learning, and the children get personal attention and help with their reading skills.
This week through Groupon’s philanthropic arm, Groupon Grassroots, you can donate a copy of Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad to a child from a low-income family for a $10 donation. For donating, you will have the option to receive a copy of the same book or opt to donate two books to children in need rather than receiving a copy yourself, so together we can all Read for the Record. On Thursday, October 4, millions of adults and children armed with Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad aim to break the world record for the most people reading the same book to a child at the same time. You can help us reach this world record by visiting jstart.org/groupon.
When we started reading to Vivian the first day we brought her home from the hospital, she found it soothing to hear our voices. Vivian reminds me that Jumpstart and its Read for the Record campaign is about much more than breaking a world reading record. It’s about honoring the importance of adult and child interaction through reading.
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