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
THANK YOU to Baum Orthodontics in Tustin for the 117 new books! These will all be part of our delivery this Friday of approximately 500 books to CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic, where patients get to pick out a new book at every visit.
We are so grateful for our ongoing 5-years long partnership with Baum Ortho! And we so appreciate Dr. Baum’s ingenious retainer replacement program, where patients who have lost their retainer receive a greatly discounted price for their new retainer if they donate some new children’s books. We’ve now received thousands of books from Baum families….apparently kids are losing a ton of retainers!
Thank you Baum Ortho (and Baum Ortho families) for your incredible continued support!
ECBC has had so much fun over the past couple weeks celebrating Halloween with CHOC patients by sharing terrific Halloween-themed literature! This includes patients and siblings trick-or-treating for 207 Halloween books at our annual BOO-ks for Treats event; delivering 473 Halloween-themed books to our outpatient libraries at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center and at the Oncology Clinic; handing out 97 Halloween books individually to patient rooms via our Mobile Book Cart; and reading a whole bunch of spooky stories at oncology, neurology, and other patients’ bedside. This amounts to a total of 777 new Halloween-themed books being gifted this Halloween season! Additionally, volunteers gave out beautiful and inspirational literary Halloween cards made by local high students (e.g., “ENWITCH your mind by READING” with an illustration of a witch reading! or CARVE some time for reading with an illustration of a carved pumpkin). Patients are so excited to celebrate Halloween, and it’s magical how powerful a wonderful Halloween book can be to inspire reading that wouldn’t otherwise happen!
A huge thank you to everyone who donated and conducted their own book drives to make this all possible: NCL North Tustin for the 183 Halloween books and 186 Halloween cards they donated (thank you Ali, Haley and Kendall Langdon for organizing the book drive); the William P. Gray Legion Lex American Inn of Court for the 83 books they donated (thank you Elia Naqvi for organizing this book drive); the many individual donors who participated in Ethan’s Halloween book drive on Amazon that resulted in hundreds more books arriving in the mail; the Foothill High Schools Ethan & Choco student club for the 64 Halloween cards they made (thank you to club President Eleanor Nguyen); El Dorado High School’s Books 4 CHOC Club for the 50 cards they made (thank you to club President Leila Do); ECBC lead volunteers Cathie James and Anne Case for helping to host our BOO-ks for Treat event; and all of our ECBC bedside readers this month for delivering such fun read-aloud in patient rooms!
This post cannot be complete without mentioning the significance of ECBC’s Halloween book sharing for our Co-Founder Ethan. Just a few days prior to Halloween in 2014, Ethan was diagnosed with Leukemia at 7.5 years old. On October 31st of that year, exactly ten years ago today, Ethan had surgery to insert a port in his chest, he received his first dose of chemo, and he dressed up with his siblings to trick-or-treat at CHOC for candy and other small toys (yet no books to be seen!). And now, 10 years later and a high-school senior, it’s remarkable to witness Ethan’s continued joy in sharing his love of reading as he hands out Halloween-themed books so that patients can also enjoy literary candy!
A huge thank you to NCL North Tustin for hosting a Halloween book drive for ECBC over the past couple of weeks. We just received their donation of 183 Halloween-themed books — a terrific collection of new, high-appeal books for CHOC patients af all ages. NCL members also made beautiful literary-themed Halloween cards, with handwritten messages, to be gifted to patients along with the books. THANK YOU to NCL North Tustin young ladies and families who contributed to this awesome bookraiser — we can’t wait to share these with CHOC kiddos at our upcoming Halloween book give-aways at CHOC! A special shout out to Ali, Haley, and Kendall Langdon for organizing the book drive and collecting + bookplating all of the books at your home! New, high-quality books are expensive — It is efforts like these that keep us going!
We still need about 100 more books for our BOO-ks for Treats Halloween book gifting at CHOC. Please donate a book if you haven’t yet! To donate, go to: bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC
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!
Today was our monthly Outpatient Gifting Library re-stocking day at CHOC Children’s Hospital’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and at the Oncology Clinic. We re-stocked our bins with 315 new books for patients of all ages, so that every time patients visit CHOC for a chemo infusion or cancer clinic check-up, they can select a book to keep. We work hard to ensure that we provide a great variety of book types so that there’s something of interest for everyone — including graphic novels for reluctant readers, informational texts for the kiddos who prefer nonfiction fact books, and a variety of poetry anthologies ranging from the silly poetry of Shel Silverstein to the more mature and emotional poems of Poet Laureate Ada Limon. While we rarely get to witness the patients on the outpatient side select their books, today we had the privilege of catching cancer warrior “B” scan the options, choose a touch-and-feel board book about sharks as well as an anthology of Avengers stories, and sit down in the OPI lobby to start “reading”. Keep reading and thriving, Superhero B!
If you haven’t yet contributed to ECBC’s annual fundraiser and would like to help us sustain our monthly outpatient gifting programs, as well as our inpatient book and reading programs at CHOC, please consider making a monetary donation at runsignup.com/BOOKIT2024. Thank you — we depend on our community to keep it all going!
Thank you Arroyo for collecting books for ECBC at your book fair this past week — we are grateful for the 87 awesome new books that you donated. And a special thank you to Claudia Rounaghi for your help organizing the book drive. We so appreciate Arroyo’s annual support since we started school book drives in 2016!
Yesterday was our monthly Outpatient Gifting Library re-stocking day at CHOC Children’s Hospital’s Outpatient Infusion Center and at the Oncology Clinic. We delivered 305 new books for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults, including some specific titles for patients with special requests. We also delivered 20 of our Read Think Thrive Bags that are given out to kids when they are newly diagnosed with cancer; too many infants, toddlers, and teens were diagnosed just in the past ten days — we hope these books will provide some literary joy in the coming weeks and months as these warriors begin their battles. In total, August’s outpatient delivery included 513 new books for patients visiting CHOC for chemotherapy or oncology appointments. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our August Wishlist Fundraiser for easy chapter books; every donation we receive helps to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our book bins. If you haven’t had a chance to donate a book from our August fundraiser wishlist, please click HERE.
We just received a wonderful collection of 355 new books from the family and friends of Georgia Kokenge! Georgia is the mother-in-law of longtime and relentless ECBC supporter Fenny Kokenge; before Georgia passed away, she asked for a book drive for ECBC in lieu of flowers like her husband Gene had a few years prior. We created a “Georgia Kokenge Memorial Book Drive” wish list on Amazon for Fenny to share, and as in 2021, the response was magnificent! The books were sent directly to Fenny, and she had all of the titles on display at the celebration of life that she hosted at her home (all bookplated with in memory of Georgia Kokenge stickers and alongside photos of Georgia reading to her grandkids and students). Thank you to Fenny, Jason, and the Kokenge family — we are so grateful that you wanted to honor your beautiful mom in this way. We can’t wait to get these books into the hands of the kids at CHOC who are battling cancer and other life-threatening conditions!
Thank you to El Dorado High School (Placentia, CA) for your awesome donation this month of 162 new books and monetary donation of $360! And a special thank you to EDHS’s Books 4 CHOC Club led by President Leila Do for all of your hard work in leading the book drive as well as the fundraiser at Handel’s. You collected a terrific bunch of high quality books for patients of all ages, including many of our most needed book types such as board books, graphic novels, and beginning reading books. This was Books 4 CHOC’s first year in existence since they founded their club in the fall of 2023, and they have had a productive first year of making literacy support items (i.e., bookmarks, literary-themed holiday cards) as well as hosting book drives and fundraisers. THANK YOU Books 4 CHOC!
If you are a high school student and interested in starting your own high school support club for ECBC and Orange County’s hospitalized kids, please send an email to ali@ECbookclub.com. Founding and running a club can be a great way to support your local community as well as gain impactful leadership experience!
Today was our monthly Outpatient Gifting Library re-stocking day at CHOC Children’s Hospital Outpatient Infusion Center and at the Oncology Clinic. We delivered 352 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our June Wishlist Fundraiser for nonfiction/informational books. Every donation we receive helps to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our book bins. If you’d like to contribute to our July Wishlist Fundraiser for bookcrafting supplies, please click HERE.
We just picked up 160 books from Baum Ortho, who has collected books for ECBC on an ongoing basis for FIVE years now. Most books are donated through their retainer replacement program, where patients who have lost their retainer receive a greatly discounted price for their replacement retainer if they donate some new children’s books. How ingenious (and generous of Baum and co) is that?!
Baum Orthodontics is of several of ECBC’s Community Thrive Partners, which are community businesses who continue to support ECBC from year to year. We give out 500-600 new books per month to kids at CHOC Children’s Hospital, and these partnerships (along with our Thrive Partner Schools) are how we keep our gifting programs 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 Baum Ortho (and Baum Ortho families) for your incredible ongoing support!
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.
Thank you Grace Lutheran School in Huntington Beach for hosting a FOURTH consecutive book drive for ECBC and collecting 136 terrific books! A special shout out to the awesome middle school students who conducted the book drive —they make their own posters and collection boxes; man a book donation table for a week before and after school; promote the book drive; and then count, sort, and deliver the books. Thank you to all the Grace Lutheran families who donated, and a special thank you to Joi Vutpakdi for her commitment to ECBC and coordinating this wonderful effort year after year.
We so appreciate our small handful of repeat donor (AKA “Thrive Partner Schools”) who host book drives for us annually. It is a TREMENDOUS help to have some bookraising happen that doesn’t require ECBC’s exceptionally limited resources in order to make happen. Grace Lutheran, and our few other Thrive Partner Schools and businesses — you are a true blessing to our tiny nonprofit!
ECBC had a terrific day yesterday at the OC Book Fair in Old Town Tustin, hosted by the Tustin Literary Foundation and Arvida Book Co. This inaugural event included indie bookstores, publishers, local nonprofits, food trucks, and a fantastic turnout of hundreds of literature enthusiasts. We had an impressive number of people stop by the ECBC booth — and most seemed genuinely interested in learning about our cause. We didn’t collect many books, but we did lots of sharing about our programs, engaged many kids in writing personal Care Cards for the cancer warriors who receive our new diagnosis book bags, and ended up with a long list of names of people who are interested in becoming a bedside reader at CHOC. And, Ethan enjoyed kicking off the day on stage by reading aloud a story and sharing about ECBC with the audience. Thank you to Leah of Alternating Current Press for her generous donation of poetry and short fiction for our teens and young adult patients, and we so appreciate our amazing bedside readers Theresa, Derek, and Joy for joining us to help run our booth. And a big thank you to Arvida owners Sam and Mike for inviting ECBC to be part of this special day. It’s so fun to see our community gather and connect around all things bookish, while supporting local businesses as well! We look forward to being back next year!
This week was our monthly outpatient gifting library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered 425 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults, including some specific titles by special request from a few patients. We also delivered 20 of our Read Think Thrive Book Bags for kids at CHOC to receive after they are diagnosed with cancer (meaning there have been 20 new cancer diagnoses at CHOC in the past month) — which means that we delivered a total of 627 new books plus crafting supplies and other literacy support materials that are in the book bags. We hope these books inspire some summer reading among CHOC patients!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our May and JuneWishlist Fundraisers for Beginning Reading books and informational books. Every donation we receive helps to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our book bins. Please watch out for our upcoming July Wishlist Fundraiser, to be announced in a few days!
Ethan’s June Wishlist Fundraiser is for Informational books. Please check out his video!
To donate an informational book, click on the link below. 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! #junewishlistfundraiser #informationalbooks #books4CHOC #readthinkthrive #thrivagainstcancer
To donate a book to Ethan’s June Wishlist Fundraiser: CLICK HERE
Repeat ECBC supporter Olga just completed a “birthday book drive”, where she asked her friends and family to donate books for ECBC in honor of her birthday! She focused on collecting Spanish-language books by sharing an Amazon wish list with Spanish titles that ECBC provided her. Olga collected and delivered 143 new Spanish-language books! This equates to several months worth of Spanish book donations to CHOC patients — saving us hundreds of dollars on our usual Spanish book expenses!
This was Olga’s third targeted book drive/book donation, “targeted” meaning that she focuses on collecting a specific book type. Last year Olga collected books for teens and young adults, and the prior year Olga ran her first birthday book drive — also for Spanish-language books. Targeted book drives rarely happen, but when they do, they are particularly helpful because they provide ECBC with a collection of books that we most need — which greatly helps to offset book purchasing costs.
If you are interested in hosting your own targeted book drive (e.g., poetry, board books, books addressing a specific theme such as kindness or bravery) in honor of your birthday or for another special event, you can email us at ali@ECbookclub.com. We can provide the wish list with link to share.
Thank you Olga for helping hospitalized kids to have Spanish-language books. We so appreciate you!
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
Today was outpatient library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered 420 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. We also delivered 13 of our Read Think Thrive Book Bags for kids at CHOC to receive after they are diagnosed with cancer — which means that we delivered a total of 550 new books plus crafting supplies and other literacy support materials that are in the book bags. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our April Wishlist Fundraiser for Spanish language books. Your donations helped to offset the usual amount that we spend to replenish our Spanish books. Please watch out for our upcoming May Wishlist Fundraiser, to be announced in a few days!
Here’s what it looks like when ECBC puts together Read Think Thrive Bags for newly diagnosed cancer patients at CHOC. Each gorgeous canvas bag is filled with 10 amazing age-appropriate books, art supplies, book crafting supplies (blank books, blank comic books), “care cards” from kids in the community, and information about Ethan & Choco’s Book Club. These bags are one way that ECBC helps to engage patients’ minds so they can thrive during treatment. If you are interested in learning more about getting involved in ECBC as a bedside reader, board member, sponsor, or volunteer at events like these, please e-mail us at Ali@ECbookclub.com and we will get you the info you need to make an impact with hospitalized kids. Thank you Board of Directors member Susie and lead volunteer Anne for your hard work in coordinating this packaging day, and thank yo to our amazing volunteers for helping! #megabagpackaging day #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer
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!
