Striving to make access to books and reading a core part of the care that kids receive in the hospital, with the premise that literacy support for children fighting cancer and other life-altering conditions can help promote cognitive health and social connections that are part of thriving through treatment and beyond
Happy May! Ethan’s May Wishlist Fundraiser is for Beginning Reader books. Please check out his video below!
To donate a beginning reader book, click on the link below or scan the QR code. If you’d like to make an ongoing monetary donation that goes towards our monthly targeted wishlist fundraisers, please consider becoming an ECBC Gem (which stands for Give Every Month). You can click on the link below to become a GEM, and select the monthly amount that you would like to give (or choose your own amount).
Thank you for helping hospitalized kids thrive with high-quality books and reading experiences! #maywishlistfundraiser #beginningreaderbooks #books4CHOC #readthinkthrive #thrivagainstcancer
To donate a book to Ethan’s May Wishlist Fundraiser: CLICK HERE
THANK YOU to Hewes Middle School families for the 320 new books that you donated to Ethan & Choco’s Book Club this week! This was Hewes’ third year hosting their own school book drive, and as in the past, they delivered a terrific collection of new, high-quality books for patients ages infant through teen/young adult(including 74 graphic novels and 54 board books — our two most needed and book types)!
A special thank you to Mrs. Ehrhard’s PE class for winning the class competition by donating the most books. They will have a private Gaga Ball party and donuts during their first period! And a HUGE thank you to Hewes’ Leadership teacher Dean Jennings for leading the effort and for the work of the leadership class in organizing and promoting the book drive. We appreciate you so much and can’t wait to share these amazing books with oncology patients at CHOC Children’s Hospital!
Happy April! Ethan’s April Wishlist Fundraiser is for Spanish-language books, which are in high demand at CHOC and we don’t have any of in our gifting collections. Please check out his video below!
To donate a Spanish book, click on the link below or scan the QR code. If you’d like to make an ongoing monetary donation that goes towards our monthly targeted wishlist fundraisers, please consider becoming an ECBC Gem (which stands for Give Every Month). You can click on the link below to become a GEM, and select the monthly amount that you would like to give (or choose your own amount).
Thank you for helping hospitalized kids thrive with high-quality books and reading experiences! #aprilwishlistfundraiser #spanishbooks #books4CHOC #readthinkthrive #thrivagainstcancer
To donate a book to Ethan’s April Wishlist Fundraiser: CLICK HERE To become an ECBC Gem, CLICK HERE
THANK YOU Hicks Canyon Elementary School PTA and families for hosting another book drive for ECBC and for your donation this week of 77 new books. The donation included ALL wonderful high-interest titles, including many graphic novels which we really need. Hicks Canyon conduced the book drive alongside their school’s book fair, which works so well for elementary schools since parents are visiting the fair anyway to purchase books for their kids and teachers (and schools usually benefit in the form of Scholastic points from the increased sales).
This was Hicks’ second book drive of the school year to benefit ECBC — resulting in a total of 164 new books during the 2023-2024 school year. Hicks is one of ECBC’s few “regular” donors (aka “Thrive Partner Schools”). We so appreciate our Thrive Partner Schools as they provide passive book income that we can count on — which our tiny nonprofit very much needs. A special thank you to Tina Jussal for making this (and every) Hicks book drive happen!
Happy March! Ethan’s March Wishlist Fundraiser is for poetry books — which we don’t have any of in our gifting collection. Please check out his video below! To donate a poetry book, click on the link below or scan the QR code. If you’d like to make an ongoing monetary donation that goes towards our monthly targeted wishlist fundraisers, please consider becoming an ECBC Gem (which stands for Give Every Month). You can click on the link below to become a GEM, and select the monthly amount that you would like to give (or choose your own amount).
Thank you for helping hospitalized kids thrive with high-quality books and reading experiences! #marchwishlistfundraiser #poetrybooks #books4CHOC #readthinkthrive #thrivagainstcancer
To donate a book to Ethan’s March Wishlist Fundraiser:CLICK HERE To become an ECBC Gem, CLICK HERE
Happy February! Ethan is starting monthly “Targeted Wishlist Fundraisers” to help ECBC get book types and other items that we need the most. His February wish list fundraiser is for board books. Please check out his video below! To donate a board book, click on the link below or scan the QR code. If you’d like to make an ongoing monetary donation that goes towards our monthly targeted wishlist fundraisers, please consider becoming an ECBC Gem (which stands for Give Every Month). You can click on the link below to become a GEM, and select the monthly amount that you would like to give (or choose your own amount). Thank you for helping hospitalized kids thrive with high-quality books and reading experiences! #februarywishlistfundraiser #boardbooks #books4CHOC #readthinkthrive #thrivagainstcancer
To donate a book to Ethan’s February Wishlist Fundraiser:CLICK HERE To become an ECBC Gem, CLICK HERE
This week we received book donations from three fantastic community partners: National Charity League (NCL) North Tustin, Baum Orthodontics, and Arvida Book Co! NCL collected 103 new books and wrote “Care Cards” for our book bags that go to kids when they are diagnosed with cancer. Their donation included a ton of board books for infants/toddlers, which are our greatest need as we have to buy them weekly. We just picked up 100 books from Baum Ortho, who has collects books for ECBC on an ongoing basis for several years — largely through their retainer replacement program (families get a huge break on their new retainer if they donate books — how awesome!). And, Arvida has a book donation box onsite so customers can purchase new books to donate — this time, we received 40 books from them, just one of many donations that they provide throughout the year.
Each of these three are considered ECBC Thrive Partners, which are repeat donors who continue to support ECBC from year to year. We give out 500 new books per month to kids at CHOC Children’s Hospital, and these partnerships are how we keep it going. Thrive Partners are especially helpful for our tiny all volunteer-based nonprofit organization because they provide our charity with much-needed passive bookraising opportunities. Thank you NCL North Tustin, Baum Ortho, and Arvida!
If you are a Tustin or nearby business and interested in having a book collection box onsite, or if you are a philanthropic organization and want to host a book drive, please email ali@ECbookclub.com. Per hospital infectious disease rules, all books must be brand new.
In honor of Giving Tuesday, please consider donating a holiday book for kids stuck at or visiting CHOC in the month of December! We need holiday-themed books of all types — board books, picture books, easy and middle grade chapter books, teen/YA fiction, joke and activity books, graphic novels, and holiday fact/nonfiction.
ECBC just received 212 awesome new books from Yorba Linda Middle School! A HUGE thank you to all of the Yorba Linda families who donated! And a special thank you to the ASB students for leading the book drive efforts. ASB created custom book donation boxes for each teacher’s classroom; they made posters with book drive information to display around the school; they further advertised the book drive on YLMS “Bobcat TV”; and they counted, organized, and bookplated all of the books. ASB also added some friendly between-classroom competition into the mix to boost book donations — congratulations to Mrs. Mucho’s classroom for coming in first place with 89 donated books and winning a donut party! And thank you also to ASB teacher Ms. Sundrstum for helping ASB to lead such a successful first book drive for ECBC! Schools provide the majority of the books for our gifting library, so we are deeply grateful to have a new partner in Yorba Linda Middle School (who has agreed to do this annually)! Thank you YLMS!
Thank you CarterStrongForever for your annual CarterStrong book drive! We LOVE receiving Carter’s favorite books — he had the best taste in books, and it’s so fun to get to share them with CHOC patients year after year!
Thank you Laguna Road Elementary School in Fullerton for conducting a book drive for ECBC alongside their Fall book fair last month. Laguna Road donated 129 new, fantastic books for patients of all ages! A very special shout out to oncology warrior and CHOC patient Will. Will was invited to Laguna Road to share his story, and when asked who which charity he wanted the school to support in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, he selected collecting books for ECBC! THANK YOU Will for so awesomely advocating for ECBC and making a difference for patients at CHOC!
October is here, and so it’s time for our annual Halloween book drive! ECBC is so excited that our BOO-ks for Treats Halloween book give-away is finally back as part of CHOC’s trick-or-treating event! This event holds a very special place in our organization’s heart, especially ECBC co-founder Ethan’s. Ethan was diagnosed with cancer a few days before Halloween in 2014, and on Halloween day Ethan had his port surgically placed in his chest, started chemotherapy, and also dressed up and went trick-or-treating in the CHOC lobby at dozens of fun booths giving away candy and small toys. A year later, we founded ECBC and then BOO-ks for Treats, so that CHOC patients could also trick-or-treat for literary candy (aka books)! During Covid, we had to deliver Halloween books “reverse trick-or-treating” style, in bags to patient rooms — which was not nearly as fun. So we are thrilled to be back!
Which means that we need a TON of Halloween-themed books for patients of all ages! Spefically, we need about 500 books for the trick-or-treating event, and then another several hundred for our outpatient gifting library carts. Please help us if you can! To donate, you can scan the QR code below or 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. We need books of all types — from board books and picture books to easy chapter books, middle grade chapter books, graphic novels, and teen/young adult fiction. THANK YOU for providing literary joy to kids who are stuck in the hospital on Halloween!
THANK YOU to these Tustin Unified School District elementary schools for hosting book drives for ECBC last week: Hicks Canyon, Arroyo, and Guin Foss. All three schools collected books for Ethan & Choco’s Book Club as part of their fall book fairs, and all three schools do this regularly, 1-2 times per year alongside their book fairs. ECBC is currently donating 500-600 new books per month to CHOC patients, and most of these books come from school book drives. So it is a big deal to have “regulars” whom we can count on for incoming books! A special shout out to Hicks Canyon parent Tina Jussal, Guin Foss Librarian (and ECBC Board Member) Susie Alexander, and Arroyo parent Claudia Rounaghi for coordinating your school’s book drive efforts!
Please contact ECBC (ali@ECbookclub.com) if your school would like to partner with ECBC and run your own book drive! There are meaningful ways to involve students as desired, especially if your school’s ASB/leadership class would like to take it on!
THANK YOU Salem Lutheran School for hosting a book drive last month and for donating 104 fantastic new books! Graphic novels are in huge demand at the hospital and we need to purchase them monthly, so getting a ton is a big plus!). We appreciate your support so much!
Thank you to Peters Canyon Elementary teacher Elise Hong and her 5th grade class for conducting an impromptu book drive for ECBC in the final two weeks of school! Elise and her students decorated a book donation box, made posters, and spread the word with the rest of the school — and they collected 88 new books amongst the usual end-of-school year craziness! These books will be going directly to kids at CHOC Children’s Hospital next week! Thank you to all PCE families who donated, and ECBC is looking forward to a continuing partnership with Peters Canyon!
Thank you Grace Lutheran School, Huntington Beach, for hosting a third consecutive book drive for ECBC and collecting 142 terrific books! A special shout out to the awesome middle school students who conducted the book drive — including making posters and collection boxes as well as manning a book donation table for a week before and after school. Also, thank you to Joi Vutpakdi for rallying the kids behind our cause and for her work to help the kids make their book drive a success. THANK YOU GRACE LUTHERAN!
THANK YOU to Tavi’s Fairy Festival for the 81 books you collected/donated as a tribute to Tavi’s love of books and all things fancy! We can’t wait to get these books into the hands of kids at CHOC are are battling life-altering illnesses. Thank you also to Whitney Fink for organizing this book drive as part of this beautiful celebration of Tavi’s life!
THANK YOU Foothill High School families for donating books to Ethan & Choco’s Book Club last month. There is always such an abundance of information and philanthropic opportunities coming from our kids’ schools, and we so appreciate your taking the time to support ECBC’s programs at CHOC. A huge shout out to FHS’ Ethan & Choco’s Club for hosting such a successful book drive! You collected 100 new books –approximately $1000 worth — a record for a high school book drive for ECBC! Your posters, social media marketing, on-site and online options for book donations, and your homemade brownie incentive all paid off!
If teens are interested in starting an Ethan & Choco Club at their own high school, refer to/print flyer below or email ali@ECbookclub.com.
THANK YOU Brookhaven Elementary School for hosting a book drive for ECBC at your book fair last week, and for the 134 new books that were donated by your families! And a HUGE thank you to Jennifer Wolsky Garnant for organizing the book drive and to Will for counting the books and ensuring they are all bookplated! We are so grateful for your support; all of these books will be going to CHOC oncology patients next week!
THANK YOU to Hewes Middle School families for the 430 new books that you donated to Ethan & Choco’s Book Club! This was Hewes’ second year hosting their own school book drive, and they beat their last year’s total by almost 200 books! (And, this was our third highest- one-time donation from a school, ever!). This fantastic donation included books of all types for patients ages infant through teen/young adult, and it is equivalent to one month of ECBC’s donations to CHOC, so it is so super helpful!
A special thank you to Mrs. Magnusen’s class for winning the class competition by donating the most books, and thank you to Mrs. Wagstaff’s and Ms. Moffat’s classes for also donating significant numbers. And a HUGE thank you to Hewes Leadership teacher Dean Jennings for leading the effort and for the work of the leadership class in promoting the book drive, making promotional posters, and counting and bookplating the books. We appreciate you!
