Reading Makes A Difference™

And it pretty much was. In 2003, Ms. Stewart was a teacher at the Hawthorne school and Saltzman presided over one of The Phund’s early celebrations of literacy and community service. Twenty-two years later, they saw the school’s 780 students get as excited about the charity’s Read-A-Thon as many of their parents had two decades earlier.

This time around, children served by the Venice Family Clinic’s Maxine Waters Health and Dignity Center, will receive The Jester Has Lost His Jingle books and Jester & Pharley Dolls generated by the students reading 143,836 pages in their read-a-thon.

Happily joining them to hand out awards to top readers were Dr. Erika Ayala, Hawthorne School District Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, and Faye Norman, Venice Family Clinic’s Senior Development Manager.

And with adult English as a Second Language (ESL) students eagerly joining the read-a-thon, many parents cheering on their voracious readers and colorful balloons bustling in the wind, excitement filled the air.