On a crisp and sunny Saturday morning, Literacy Inc. (LINC), the New York City Reads Initiative, and City’s First Readers families joined the rest of the world in celebrating the annual global holiday, Read for the Record.
On October 29, 2022, over 100 families came together online while many others gathered in-person at watch parties in four of our communities to tune in and enjoy their own festivities.
These watch parties were held simultaneously in East New York, Brooklyn, South Jamaica, Queens, East Harlem and Washington Heights.
Our dear and long time partner Jumpstart created this tradition 17 years ago and it just keeps growing, expanding to all parts of the world and bringing us together through our favorite pastime, reading. To date, over 24 million people have participated in Read for the Record, and hundreds of thousands of high-quality books have been provided to children in underserved communities across the country. LINC is proud to host a virtual program at the forefront of this historical event, to spread the joy of literacy and bring together readers around the globe on this special day.
For the kickoff, LINC staff asked parents and children to sit back to back for a short quiz to hone their listening skills. They read Nigel and the Moon written by Antwan Eady and illustrated by Gracey Zhang in both Spanish and English, followed by dancing, more games, and a special craft based on the story.
This year’s theme was “don’t be afraid to dream big” and our timid friend Nigel showed us how by gaining the confidence to share his dreams with his class (the world). The children were asked to draw their dreams inside of a moon and shout them to the world.
Parents are encouraged to nurture their children’s dreams with practical parent tips such as:
Nurture their passion and optimism and help them explore their dreams
Enable them to gain necessary life skills. Find out what they need to learn and where/how they can do so
Be supportive. Praise their strength and effort
Be open and honest about your dreams and the obstacles that you have faced in your life
Read books together at home about characters who live their dreams
Many of the children couldn’t wait to share their artwork and their dreams with all of us. Some included becoming a firefighter, a science teacher, a zookeeper, a painter, and an astronaut.
Thank you to all of our partners and families for helping us break another reading record in 2022 Together we spread the joy of reading farther every year!
Don’t miss our next event! Register now for LINC’s latest literacy programs and be part of a growing movement at www.lincnyc.org/onlineprograms.