Monrovia is a Community Committed to Reading

Attendees at “So All May Read” in 2018. – Courtesy photo / Facebook, @MonroviaReads

By Susan Motander

For 20 years Monrovians have turned out to read aloud twice a year to elementary school students in town. Every classroom gets a reader. The second reading of the year is held in March each year in celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Suess (aka Theodore Seuss Geisel). Although Geisel’s real birthday is March 2, Read Across Monrovia will be on March 7.

Joanne Spring started the program at Monroe Elementary School when she was the principal there in the mid-1990s. She took the program citywide in 2000 when she retired. The program is now sponsored by the local literacy non-profit foundation, Monrovia Reads. For more information contact Spring at (626) 358-1952. Applications to read are available by contacting Spring at joannespring13@gmail.com.

In conjunction with Read Across Monrovia, Monrovia Reads is holding its annual fundraising dinner, “So All May Read.” The dinner will be held at Doubletree by Hilton in Monrovia. Tickets are $60 per person with reservation being taken now at SoAllMayRead@gmail.com. Reservations must be made by Feb. 21. Checks for the dinner should be mailed to Monrovia Reads, P. O. Box 1033, Monrovia, CA 91017.

Each year Monrovia Reads honors an individual with its Literacy Legacy Award. This year Stephanie Cox will receive that honor. Cox started the first Little Free Library in Monrovia as her Gold Award project for Girl Scouts. The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout in Boy Scouting.

The evening will begin with a no-host cocktail hour during which a silent auction will be held. Some of the items for the silent auction include:

• Cooking class for four at Sauté Culinary Academy.
• Sunset cocktail party on sawpit damn.
• Cabin in Big Bear.
• Brew your own beer basket.
• Three separate yoga sessions with Barbara Bucy.
• Joanne Spring’s famous chocolate chip cookies.

During the dinner there will also be a live auction with such items being offered as a Newport Harbor cruise, a stay at a condo in Palm Desert, four field level seats at a Dodger Game, and four box seats at the Hollywood Bowl.

Monrovia Reads in a registered 501(c)(3) charity whose goal is a 100 percent literate Monrovia. To that end it sponsors the local literacy van that, among other things, brings the library to all the public elementary schools each week. The non-profit also puts books in the hands of children at local civic events and the annual back-to-school distribution of Foothill Unity Center. It also sponsors class sets of books for students as well as the after school program’s annual reading competition.

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