Literacy

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.” — Roald Dahl’s Oompa–Loompas in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”   Thousands of young readers will descend on OCC Sunday for the fifth annual Orange County Children’s Book Festival. The event includes readings and signings with top authors and illustrators, exhibits, several stages of live entertainment and a popular wild animal arena.

Maybe it's because she doesn't have a TV, but Joyce Justice loves reading and wants to share her passion with the community. Justice recently completed training to be a volunteer reading tutor for the Newport Beach Public Library's literacy services program. "It's something that I've been wanting to do for a long time," she said. "I worked in the food industry for 10 years, and I was totally amazed in this day and age how many people could not read and what a stumbling block it was for them."

Mariners Christian School sets $3-million goal Administrators from a Costa Mesa private school have announced they will embark on a campaign to expand its campus facilities over the next year. Officials at Mariners Christian School want to raise about $3 million to improve and upgrade several facilities. With a goal of beginning construction by June, parents and teachers want to add a high-tech arts center, an athletic building with locker rooms and enhance existing classrooms.

Marisa O'Neil Whittier Preschool's little students will get some help from their bigger counterparts with a new UC Irvine program set to start next week. Students from Jumpstart Irvine, which focuses on literacy for preschool children from low-income families, will work with children in the state-funded preschool on a one-on-one and on a group basis. The program seeks to get students ready for kindergarten and expose college students to child development.

Newport Beach-based advertising agency Lawrence, Mayo & Ponder was recently awarded the $3-million READ California contract by the Governor's Office of the Secretary for Education for the third consecutive year. The contract allows the agency to design a public education campaign to promote the importance of reading to children. Lawrence, Mayo & Ponder has won several awards for its television and public service announcements on the reading campaign, including the Literacy in Media Award for best public service announcement.

Newport-Mesa Unified school board members on Tuesday approved a $3.5-million grant, which will be distributed between Whittier and Pomona preschools over the next three years to boost reading programs. The schools were two of only 32 across the country to receive the grant from the U.S. Department of Education. “This is very exciting for us,” said Newport-Mesa Supt. Jeff Hubbard. “This is quite an accomplishment.” The money will improve programs already in place at the schools, enhancing language, cognitive and early reading skills for preschool-aged children.

DO WE HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON? What does Wells Fargo Bank, Oasis Senior Center, Newport Harbor High School, Hoag Hospital, UC Irvine, Starbucks, the Costa Mesa Police Department and Fire Department, Jewish Federation of Orange County, Harbor Christian Fellowship, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and the Los Angeles Times have in common? They are providing mentors to students in kindergarten through third grade at Pomona, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools in Costa Mesa.

Story by Christine Carrillo, photo by [tk] After a two-year search for volunteer work that would make use of his talents, longtime Costa Mesa resident Phil Dunn finally found his niche. With a master's degree in journalism from USC and an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, Dunn clearly understands the importance of reading and writing. But it wasn't until the 34-year-old technical marketing writer shifted from the academic milieu and began to focus on more everday tasks that he finally started to understand the difficulties associated with illiteracy.

Deirdre Newman On a wall outside Whittier Elementary School in Costa Mesa is a vibrant mural with the school's motto emblazoned across it -- "Learning For All Whatever It Takes." The embodiment of this motto is Principal Sharon Blakely, who took charge of the school when the students' test scores were "abysmal," teacher turnover was high and only a handful of parents showed up at Parent Teacher Assn. meetings. When Blakely arrived in the fall of 1997, she systematically began addressing the school's weaknesses with the laser focus of a Jedi warrior.

TONY DODERO I spent a good bit of time in our local public schools this week. On Monday, I was at Newport Harbor High School to take part in a mentor program that I signed up for last year. Basically, the mentors are paired up with students who are interested in similar fields of study, and we tell them what it takes to reach such lofty heights as we have reached. OK, you can stop laughing. More on that program in a later column because the other school event I attended this week is going to get the lion's share of the ink this week.

COSTA MESA — If a school gives a kid a laptop, what will happen? The Newport-Mesa Unified School District handed out about 600 netbooks for students to use as their own last school year. "I know for certain the students' tech skills improvement scores raised significantly in schools that had netbooks," Jenith Mishne, the district's director of educational technology, said at a recent parent orientation meeting at Paularino Elementary School. The district gave fifth- and sixth-graders at Davis Magnet, Sonora, Paularino and Killybrooke elementary schools, and seventh-grade science students at Costa Mesa Middle School, netbooks last year after it won a $400,000 federal technology grant.

NEWPORT BEACH - When Effy Sanchez's children were growing up, she didn't speak English well enough to read to them. Instead, she watched her husband introduce them to the world of Dr. Seuss. As the Costa Mesa resident's English improved, she made up for lost time. With "Green Eggs and Ham" in hand, Sanchez, 48, read the book aloud to her 19-year-old daughter. "I'm very happy to read to her," Sanchez said. "It's never too late. " Sanchez, a native Spanish-speaker, was honored Thursday morning by the Newport Beach Public Library Literacy Services' sixth annual International Literacy Day celebration at the Central Library.

A local literacy program is getting a financial boost, thanks to a $7,500 grant from Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy was awarded one of PIMCO Foundation's 2010 grants, which will go toward program funding and materials. Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy offers adults free assistance in becoming literate if they live or work in Newport-Mesa. The program now has 130 adults learning literacy skills, with even more on the waiting list. The program has more than 100 volunteers working with illiterate adults one-on-one or in small groups.

NEWPORT BEACH — Give him a blueprint, and he says he can read it lickety split. Give him a book, however, and that's a different story. But Claude Bonham, 56, is trying. The Costa Mesa resident was singled out and honored Thursday by the Newport Beach Library Literacy Program, which during the past three years has brought Bonham up to a second-grade reading level. The program, with its army of tutors and career teachers, has also taught him how to carry out the financial practicalities of life — balancing a checkbook, using a debit card at the grocery store and withdrawing cash from an ATM. He can even log onto a computer and check his e-mail.

The Literacy Project Foundation called on the Newport-Mesa crowd this summer to learn "What Dreams Are Made of." This second annual luncheon supporting the goals of the Literacy Project Foundation unfolded in the dining room at Big Canyon Country Club, Newport Beach. Chaired by Sue Tucker and Doug Freeman , the $100 per ticket luncheon sold out the dining room, attracting an audience of people who understand and care about the importance of educating our broad and diverse population.

An estimated 23,000 people in the Newport-Mesa area cannot read this article. Yet many in the community will seek help learning to read through the Newport Beach Public Library’s literacy services. In an effort to raise awareness of illiteracy locally and nationwide, authors Sonia Nazario and María Amparo Escandón will speak at the Newport Beach Library Foundation’s third annual Gift of Literacy luncheon today. The event aims to increase the visibility of the literacy program to future participants and supporters.

Costa Mesa-based Experian®, the global information services company, and the National Bankers Association (NBA) Foundation have announced a new pilot program focusing on financial literacy outreach in underserved communities. This initiative will reach consumers through NBA member banks, many of which are located in distressed urban centers. ?Ensuring all consumers have access to useful resources to help them better manage their finances is a core value for Experian,? said Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education at Experian.

Submitted by Dan Pittman Costa Mesa-based Experian was the underwriter of the Jump$tart Coalition’s first-ever National Educator Conference, which was held recently in Washington, DC. Created to help educators meet the challenges of teaching personal finance in hard economic times, the forum drew more than 250 classroom teachers from 46 states. The forum was developed in conjunction with the National Education Association (NEA), and featured several Washington dignitaries.

COSTA MESA – The Orange County Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (OC-ALA) joined actress Jamie Lee Curtis at the 5th Annual Orange County Children’s Book Festival. 30 volunteers from the 145-member organization helped boost attendance at the Orange Coast stage, collect books at the book donation site, and greet VIP’s including Jamie Lee Curtis at the VIP area for the event. OC-ALA volunteers participated at the free community event on Sunday, October 5th on the campus of Orange Coast College.

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.” — Roald Dahl’s Oompa–Loompas in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”   Thousands of young readers will descend on OCC Sunday for the fifth annual Orange County Children’s Book Festival. The event includes readings and signings with top authors and illustrators, exhibits, several stages of live entertainment and a popular wild animal arena.