The Three Readateers

You’ve heard of the Three Musketeers, well The RF has the Three Readateers.  Lynn, Shirley and I went to PS 254 on Friday and participated in the School’s Read a Loud program.  The book chosen for the day was “Of Thee I Sing” by President Obama.

The day started by the Readateers being met and chaperoned to the Library by PS 254 Ambassadors. (Students with sashes)  We were offered breakfast…”real” bagels, etc. and were seated at tables where we were addressed by the Principal.  All the Readateers had to go around the room, introduce themselves and name their favorite American hero.   We have so many heroes…  I named Walt Disney.  I wrote a paper about him when I was in Grammar School and his dream is still near and dear to my heart.  Kids need to dream, to use their imaginations…to play.

We were then brought to the gym for an assembly.  Everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang The Star Spangled Banner.  OK…by that time, I was already a bit choked up.  The School’s string orchestra then played two tunes.  I recognized Mary Had a Little Lamb. We sat behind the orchestra and got to see their Teacher at work…he was brilliant…he counted out, one…two…three…play.  He would tell them when to pause…and then finally when to take a bow.  Adorable!  Finally, a young lady came out to play her purple violin.  She had been taking lessons for only two months.  She played Ode to Joy.  I cried.  She played the notes perfectly.  I’m getting all choked up just thinking about it…  It was so very moving.  It’s one of my favorite pieces…the melody is gorgeous…and the words…something we all should remember…”…all men are brothers…”

Whew…after that, I wasn’t sure if I could read to the little crumb snatchers without getting all mush-faced.  The Three RF Readateers were chosen to read to Kindergarteners.  I had a great group.  They were alert, paying attention, had questions, were really well behaved.  I told them about the RF and how we help people.  Told them that I do the happy dance every day.  They called me on that and I had to do the dance for the class…and we all did the dance together.  What fun.  Shirley joined us and yes, she also did the happy dance with the kids.

I loooove my job!!!!

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Kris – the third Readateer

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Shirley – the second Readateer

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Lynn – the first Readateer

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You have noooo idea how difficult it was for me to get my raggedly old bones on that bike! And no, I did no plan to coordinate my outfit with the food cart.

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How cute is Swami on the City Harvest bike!!!

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Swami was one of the guest speakers at the City Harvest “skip Lunch; feed a child” event held at Citibank. He done us proud! And he sure cleans up nice!!!

Robin on orange duty

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City Harvest volunteers packing lunch bags at Citibank. Yes, Robin helped out. He may be small but he’s a darn hard worker. We received the donated bags. YAY!!! We’ll be giving them out to our client at tomorrow’s pantry day.

CHU

Nooo…It’s not a sneeze.  CHU stands for City Harvest University.  It’s not a joke…  City Harvest offers wonderful and extremely useful training/seminars.  I attended one yesterday afternoon on Managing Relationships with Funders.  The classes take place at CRE – Community Resource Exchange.  I was lucky enough to get Randall Quan as the Instructor; he’s fabulous…very animated and so very knowledgeable.  I’ve taken a few classes with him.  The only bad thing about attending CHU is that CRE is located all the way Downtown.  I love the City but hate going down to Wall Street.  Too busy, narrow and overly crowded for me.  Twenty some odd folks registered for the class but only two of us showed up.  It was great; we had our own private lesson.

I had to reward myself for making the arduous trip Downtown…soooo, I went shopping to Century 21 after class.  YAY!