This past week ECBC delivered 24 of our Read Think Thrive Bags to CHOC Outpatient Oncology at the Hyundai Cancer Institute. These are ECBC’s book bags that go to patients just after they are diagnosed with cancer — valued at $150 per bag, they are curated by age/gender and filled with ten new high-quality books, book crafting supplies, and other literacy support materials (e.g., reading light, bookmark, “Care Card” and creative book response from a kid in the community encouraging the patient to read and create their own literary response). We love that these bags provide kids and teens who are newly diagnosed with cancer with materials and messaging that supports reading and cognitive thrivership right from the start of treatment (especially since these kids are often out of school and have limited access to high-quality literature-based experience).

ECBC delivers these bags regularly so that CHOC has ongoing inventory as needed. However, we are currently low on bags, and completely out of them for half of our age groups. Which means that we are in need of approximately $20,000 to fund our annual mega packaging day, where we package 120 bags to get us through the next 6-12 months. Please help by becoming an ECBC GEM (Give Every Month) — which is a commitment to a recurring donation at the amount you choose and would greatly help us to keep this program going!

To become a GEM, CLICK HERE.