Yours Humanly and the City of Concord bring Family Literacy Night to Westwood Elementary and 9 other MDUSD schools!

More than 200 people turned out for Westwood Elementary School's Family Literacy Night on Tuesday, Jan. 23rd to receive a free book, sign up for a library card, play literature-themed games and enjoy tasty food. The event was co-hosted by the nonprofit Yours Humanly and funded through a grant provided by the City of Concord. 

The event included reading activities, a Concord Library Youth Services resource table where Librarian Rosa Lassalle accepted library card applications, Westwood C.A.R.E.S. Extended Learning Program information and registration for After-School Clubs, local author Kori Barton sharing her new book "C is for Concord," dinner provided by Los Pinos, a book give-away by Yours Humanly, and MDUSD Food Services.

Brian Aranas came to the event with his wife and Kindergartner Addy Aranas, who is in the school's Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. "We want to participate in school activities as much as we can," he said, as they visited the Concord Library table to find out about library reading programs. Nearby, Lindsey Barroso was helping her Kindergarten daughter Cameron sound out sight words in a Bingo game led by former Westwood students who now attend El Dorado MS. She said Cameron and her 2nd-grader enjoy coming to school events. And underneath a large balloon arch, Yours Humanly workers were passing out one free book to each student. Kindergartner Nicodemus Nelson was excited to receive his book, "More than words: So many ways to say what we mean," by Roz Maclean. His mother Angela Nelson said Nicodemus and  his2nd grade sister Alivia usually come to all school events to have fun together with other families.

Sunny Singh, the founder and CEO of Yours Humanly, said the city of Concord gave his organization a $213,000 grant to provide books and host 20 (two at each school) literacy nights at 10 Concord elementary schools over 2 years. Besides Westwood, the other MDUSD schools that will benefit from the grants are: Cambridge, El Monte, Fair Oaks, Meadow Homes, Mountain View, Sun Terrace, Wren Avenue, and Ygnacio Valley elementary schools, as well as the Holbrook Language Academy.

Thank you to Yours Humanly and the City of Concord for funding these excellent resources for our students and families!