My life is going great and I feel very blessed to have what I have – a happy and healthy family, a job I love and the ability to help others.

In January, I made a pledge to help 12 people or organizations as my New Year’s resolution. I don’t know who I am going to help, although I do have an idea to adopt a class in a program I’ll call K2C… but that’s another blog entry. What makes this resolution fun are the ideas and opportunities just seem to present themselves.

Like today…

I found out a local school was having its annual book fair. I’ve always loved attending  book fairs when my children were in elementary school – the selections, the affordable prices, the joy on my sons faces when they were picking out the books they wanted to buy. And even though my youngest son is a sophomore in high school, I still enjoy going to book fairs. Many times, I find books I want to read.

Today, when I visited the book fair, I found one for my 8-month-old grandson… something to  start him on a lifelong love affair with reading. I even found a few books I think my teenager will enjoy reading. But the opportunity that presented itself was my discovery of teacher wish lists – books that they wished to have for their classrooms. I couldn’t pass it up! I selected two teachers I was told who taught older classrooms, Mrs. Keough – 8th grade and Ms. Gardner – 6th grade, because at that age, reading has to compete with so much to keep their interest. After a bit of searching and help from the book fair assistants, we were able to find every book the two teachers had on their lists.

I have always made a habit to give my children books as presents. Every Christmas, birthday or just because moments, books found their way into our home.  I have loved to read ever since I was a little girl and fortunately for me, two of my sons share my love of reading (I’m still working on the other one). Books to me are simply amazing! There’s just something special about being able to escape into a book and find yourself on an adventure.

Reading is important for children. It helps develop language skills. It opens up a world of possibilities for an unlimited future. And the more children read, the more they will enjoy it and get better at it. I’m glad I was able to help two teachers provide their students with the means to expand their world.