Vigilant Griffins Live Up to Their Name
In their third Jester Read-A-Thon, Griffin Avenue Elementary students showed not just the strength of a lion and wings of an eagle but also eagle eyes in powering through a total of 44,209 pages in three weeks. Their aim? To cheer up young patients at nearby Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center with Jester books and Jester & Pharley dolls.
White Memorial representative Araceli Marquez joined parents at the Crazy Hat Day festivities to celebrate students’ reading accomplishments – and compassion for ill children. “We witnessed the excitement and pride of the students, parents and staff,” Ms. Marquez noted. “It is deeply moving to see young people empowered to make a difference through reading.”
Griffin Intervention/Prevention Coordinator Elizabeth Echeverri marveled at “how students would talk about laughter and how to make others feel better about themselves. They would talk about personal stories of family members.”
Students, teachers and parents said they couldn’t wait for next year’s Jester Reading Makes A Difference program. “The book is the highlight every year,” noted Ms. Echeverri. “Even though students have read it, they want to keep revisiting the story and talking about the message.”
It is such an inspiration helping those under unfortunate circumstances.
During the three-week read-a-thon students from Griffin Avenue Elementary School kept journals to document their reading. Altogether they read 62,777 pages. A third grader from Mrs. Garcia-Leo’s class was the top reader in the entire school, reading 12,665 pages! Griffin, along with USC’s Good Neighbors Campaign, donated 36 copies of the bilingual edition of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle and 36 Jester & Pharley Dolls to Adventist Health White Memorial, in Los Angeles, for use with their young patients.
Adventist Health’s Araceli Marquez attended the read-a-thon recognition assembly to accept the Jester book and doll donation. “It is such an inspiration to see you, our community’s children, work so hard and complete a read-a-thon for the purpose of helping those under unfortunate circumstances,” Araceli told Griffin students, teachers and staff.
