Sun Valley girl’s reading habits wins books.
That was the headline in 1982 when I was in third grade and taking part in the MS Read-a-thon*. And that’s me at nine-years old, in a ridiculous dress that I loved, accepting a trophy for reading over 70 books in one month and raising over $5,000 toward finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. Raising funds for a worthy cause was new to me then but reading wasn’t. I loved reading. Books were my ticket out of a lonely and dangerous environment.
Today's headline: Sun Valley girl writes books.
My first novel, girlchild, will be published next year by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. I don’t know how much the reading I did influenced my writing career but I wonder how much more I might have accomplished had I started writing earlier. NaNoWriMo’s** Young Writer’s Program answers this question for school children across the country and around the world who otherwise might not have a chance to exercise their writing muscles.
The Young Writer’s Program is only one of those funded by The Office of Letters and Light’s Night of Writing Dangerously, but it is the reason I’ve pledged to write my heart out and my fingers off on the first draft of what I hope will be novel #2 on the night of November 15th for five hours straight, and why I’m asking you to sponsor my marathon effort. I’ve set my sights as high as I did in third grade and with the help of my friends and family (and your friends and family) intend on raising over $5,000. Five thousand dollars covers the cost of four months of email, forums, and phone support to the teachers, librarians, and students at the 500 schools that will be taking part in NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program this year. For an example of how well-spent this money is click here: http://blog.nanowrimo.org/node/126.
Tomorrow's headline: Sun Valley girl helps others write books.
We can throw pencils at kids all day long. All they’ll learn to do is duck. NaNoWriMo does more than hand out keyboards. The children in NaNoWriMo's Young Writer's Program are provided with writing tools, both mechanical and educational, but more importantly, all NaNoWriMo participants are provided the supportive environment necessary to explore the power of their own creativity and the courage to try their voice.
NaNoWriMo is about more than inspiring kids (and adults) to write, or even to write well. Empowering others of any age to create is an act of advocacy for their future and ours. Creativity is at the heart of problem-solving, not only those problems artistic in nature, but also the challenges we face as teens, as adults, and as a society. Be an advocate for a future novelist, a future scientist, a future change-maker, by running this race with me and making a donation to the truly worthy cause of putting words on a page. One of those words just might be some kid’s ticket to a better place.
And if that’s not enough, I’ve got donor goodies and a raffle! Check it out!!
Sun Valley girl gives donor goodies.
Every donation, be it the one magical dollar that will push us over the $5,000 goal or the $200 minimum required to qualify for The Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon, will be thanked Tupe-iferously! But there’s more:
Every donation of $25 or more receives a girlchild bookmark. Think of it! A little piece of me to accompany you on all of your future reading adventures!
The first eleven friends to donate $50 or more receive a girlchild bookmark and an adorable, framed, picture of me in the Sun Valley Elementary School library surrounded by… books! (After the frame supply runs out, you'll still receive the adorable picture, unframed!)
$100 Donors will receive not only a girlchild bookmark and an adorable picture of me but also will be first on the official pre-order list for a girlchild t-shirt! Don’t buy your girlchild tee at the book tour, wear your girlchild tee to the book tour!
The first three $250 Donors will receive a girlchild bookmark, t-shirt, and an adorable picture as well as an official copy of one of the few literary magazines that have seen fit to publish my work thus far: Paper Street Press or Tantalum!
$500 Donors receive all of the above (girlchild bookmark, girlchild t-shirt, adorable picture, and a lit mag (while supplies last)) and an inside view of the revision process: a framed page from the girlchild manuscript, complete with my lovely editor's hand-written notes and possibly stained with my blood, sweat, and tears (okay, at least with coffee)! Only you'll know what the notes were and only you'll know what did or didn't make it to the published version!
$1000 Donors receive all of the above (girlchild bookmark, girlchild t-shirt, adorable picture, framed and stained manuscript page, and a lit mag (while supplies last)) and will be the first to receive a signed first-edition of girlchild, hot off the press in 2009!!
Goodies fine-print:
Goodies can be signed at your request.
Donations received by November 16th qualify for Goodies.
Be my guest at The Night of Writing Dangerously!
RAFFLE: If you can make it to San Francisco for the evening of November 15th and want to eat good food, meet good people, and… perhaps… write, let me know to be included in the raffle and attend the event with me! Any size donation qualifies so long as it is received by midnight on Friday, November 7th. Come to write, come to hang out with writers, come because you love the sound of typing and scratching pencils, come for the sheer inspiration and entertainment value, for the smell of the laptops, the roar of the keys! Be my guest!
For more information on the event itself, click here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/writeathon
Raffle fine-print:
All times are PST.
Raffle prize is transferable.
Harley the Cat Forever is not eligible.
Entrants do not have to be writers to qualify.
Any size donation means any size donation. Yes, $1!
Night of Sleeping Dangerously on fold-out couch optional.
**NaNoWriMo is one of the programs of The Office of Letters and Light. Check out their mission statement to the left, or here: www.nanowrimo.org. In short, and much like another organization that could not be closer to my heart, A Window Between Worlds, NaNoWriMo empowers creativity.
*For those interested in reading the text of the article to the left, here it is!
Photo caption: TUPELO GILBERTSON accepts an edition of the Academic American Encyclopedia from a representative of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The books were given to Sun Valley Elementary School because of Tupelo’s amazing accomplishment, earning more money for MS than any student in the area – and for that matter, nation.
Page 8, FIRST EDITION, June 3, 1982 [Reno Gazette-Journal]
Sun Valley girl’s reading habits win books
A third grade student at Sun Valley Elementary School made what has been called “an extraordinary contribution” to the Northern Nevada Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and helped her school out as well.
Like many young people throughout the state, Tupelo Gilbertson participated in the chapter’s M.S. READaTHON, a fundraiser in which students solicit sponsors who donate a specific amount of money for every book the child reads during the month of March.
TUPELO read 73 books and collected more than $5,000.00. She seemed almost stoic about her accomplishment, “I just did it. I didn’t plan it. It was just fun.”
Runner-up in funds raised by over 2,700 children in Northern Nevada was Donna Cooley, a student at Brookfield School in Reno. She collected $1,025.00, reading ten books.
THIS YEAR 11,788 students, representing 134 schools, signed up for this reading adventure and 2,700 completed the program reading over $145,000.00. These 2,700 children read 53,253 books.
The students “read for the need of others” to earn prizes such as Schwinn 10-speed bikes, Atari Video Games, portable cassette players and many other fun awards.
THESE PRIZES were made possible by the local Burger King Restaurants, Reno Schwinn and many other contributors who not only gave prizes, but also supplied materials and invaluable time.
The prizes are awarded at special assemblies given at each school, and Sun Valley received a set of Academic American Encyclopedias donated by the Arete Publishing Company of Princeton, New Jersey.
THE SUCCESS of such an undertaking is due to the many volunteers who did school assemblies, and office work, the many principals and librarians and school staffs, and most of all, the mystery sleuths (children who read) their many sponsors and the many communities at large in Northern Nevada.
MONIES collected from the READaTHON are distributed two ways. Sixty percent stays in the Northern Nevada area for patient services, community and professional education and administrative costs, while the remaining 40 percent goes to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for research.
With love,
Tupelo