The What: Join Bee in his first philanthropic event! So what if he as been on this planet only a handful of Mercury Sun orbits? This is just a pint sized event he really can sink his teeth into… literally and figuratively (we do need to keep working on not chewing on books). Bee is for Books is about ensuring that all children have books of their own and removing a barrier to the critical adult child interaction of reading aloud and together.

Click to view Bee is for Books December 2015 campaign

The Ask: minimum of $10 donation, which will buy at least one new book. Best part is Bee will match book for book.

The Who: Children of patients and clients at the Bailey Boushay House in Seattle.  We personally know the impact of this organization and that the donations will go straight to the children and families in need.

The Why: Philanthropy, community support, empathy, awareness, loving kindness and just being a good human being are only a few of the many many attributes we want to cultivate in our young family. Research shows [link to prove it!] that involving your children in charitable activities is key to lifelong community support, much more so that just watching their parents donate money.  I use community loosely in that there are some many different ‘communities’ we are a part of: neighborhood, cultural, hobby, professional, political, demographic, social, special interest… on and on. But even without a robust study to test hypothesis, we have known from before our little Bee was part of our life that philanthropy was an important part of our family.

Guess what? We aren’t uber rich major donors, nor logging in 20 hours a week at a soup kitchen – but we are involved in charity and causes that resonate with us, giving of time, goods and financial support. Sure we could do more but we could do less and there is no perfect level, it is what is meaningful for you at that time, for that particular cause. Including our toddler is the next step for us and fits right in with wanting to build our family more around experiences and less around things, but also teaching important life lessons. I don’t have all the answers right now (or likely ever) for the hard WHY questions Bee will ask as he grows up (why do some children in the world not get to go to school/does that man sleep in the van on our the street/would someone give up their pet/do some kids get a special meal at school/why ….) BUT I know that sharing and learning and discovering together overtime will ease this.

The Still Skeptical but Persistent Reader Part: 

• NY Times Article : Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own
• AAP Policy Statement: Parents who read to their children nurture more than literary skills 
• Taking it even further http://thirtymillionwords.org

The Fine Print

• The first ‘campaign’ runs through the end of 2015.
• Donations (97 cents of every dollar) will be used to purchase new books for Seattle children who do not have access to new books to call their own.
• Bee’s Matching will be limited to 50 books (hey, he is just a toddler)
• It is just our family trying out this new tactic, but if you want to join us and make this even more big and more official, let us know in the comments!

The Last Side Note: I certainly have fond memories of my parents reading aloud (Little House. on the Prairie Bonnet Head over here). What books do you remember?

Thank you for joining us in Bee is for Books. M