A HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed to ECBC’s virtual fundraiser, BOOK IT, during the month of September. We literally can’t run our programs without our community’s support, so we appreciate every donation so very much. While our official fundraising window is closed, the donation website will remain open in the coming weeks because we only raised under half of our fundraising goal and annual expenses. We work on collecting book donations all year long; however, we need the monetary donations for a variety of expenses in order to keep our programs going (e.g., books to meet patients’ needs/interests that we don’t tend to collect via book drives; book storage; program materials other than books such as art supplies, parent pamphlets, bookmarks, reading lights, canvas bags for our book bags that are given to every child at CHOC who is diagnosed with cancer; library supplies; printing/copying; software). You can still donate to BOOK IT at runsignup.com/BOOKIT2024.

Now on to October! October is here, and so it’s time for our annual Halloween book drive! Every year, ECBC hosts BOO-ks for Treats at CHOC, where we give away hundreds of Halloween-themed books to kids who are stuck in the hospital on Halloween. BOO-ks for Treats holds a very special place in our organizations’s heart, especially ECBC Co-Founder Ethan’s, since Ethan was diagnosed with cancer just a few days before Halloween and trick-or-treated at CHOC’s Halloween event on the same day that he had surgery to insert his port and start chemotherapy. It’s hard to believe that this was TEN years ago! We founded ECBC a year later, and ever since then, we have been able to provide CHOC patients of all ages with beautiful age-appropriate Halloween books to add to their usual stash of candy and toys. In sum, we have donated hundreds of Halloween books each year and over 4000 Halloween books in total!

Please check out Ethan’s video plug to learn more and go to bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC to purchase a book off our Halloween Wish List on Amazon. All books will be sent directly to ECBC and bookplated with donor names. THANK YOU for providing literary joy to kids who are stuck in the hospital on Halloween!