Ethan & Choco's Book Club

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

Category Archives: ReadThinkThrive


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Ethan’s April Wishlist Fundraiser – for Spanish Books!

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


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Thank you Hicks Canyon Elementary!

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!


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Thank You High School Ethan & Choco Clubs!

ECBC received a couple of donations this month from two high school Ethan & Choco Clubs. Both clubs are run by student leaders, so all club activities are fully organized and implemented by high schoolers. Thank you to the Foothill High School ECBC club for holding a book drive —which involved making posters and donation boxes, promoting on social media, and coordinating collection sites with English teachers. The Foothill club donated over 100 books, with Ms Womack Williams’ class donating the most and winning the club’s promised donut party!

Thank you also to the ECBC club at El Dorado High (called Books for CHOC) for the bookmarks you donated last week. They are beautiful and literary-themed, and we can’t wait to share them with patients next month! 

ECBC is so grateful for the few existing ECBC support clubs, as they help to spread awareness about our cause, assist with the high volume of books ECBC needs for donations each month, and result in wonderful student-created materials that are creative and personal. The clubs also provide high school students with impactful leadership opportunities so they are a win-win for all!

If you or a teen you know is interested in starting a club at your own high school at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, please check out the information/ideas sheet below. Contact Ali at ali@ECbookclub.com to learn more. 

School-based-Ethan-and-Choco-clubsDownload


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Outpatient Delivery Day at CHOC!

Today was outpatient library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered 400 new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our March Wishlist Fundraiser for poetry books. Your donations allowed us to offer poetry to patients for the first time. You can still contribute to this fundraiser in the next couple of days using this link: https://bit.ly/wishlist_poetrybooks. Please watch out for our upcoming April Wishlist Fundraiser to be announced in a few days!


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Ethan’s March Wishlist Fundraiser – for Poetry!

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

Scan to access wish list:


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Outpatient Book Delivery Day!

Today was outpatient library re-stocking day at both the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic at CHOC Children’s Hospital. We delivered several hundred new books of all types for patients of all ages ranging from infants/toddlers through teens and young adults. We also re-stocked inventory of our Read Think Thrive Bags for kids who are newly diagnosed with cancer — each of which contain ten new age-appropriate books and book crafting supplies. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our February Wishlist Fundraiser for board books. Your donations allowed us to minimize the numbers of board books that we had to purchase as part of this month’s donation. You can still contribute to this fundraiser in the next couple of days using this link: https://bit.ly/wishlist_boardbooks . Please watch out for our upcoming March Wishlist Fundraiser to be announced in a few days!


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Introducing Ethan’s Targeted Wishlist Fundraisers!

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


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Outpatient Delivery Day!

Today was outpatient book delivery day! ECBC re-stocked our gifting cart at CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI) and our mini library at the Oncology Clinic — gifting approximately 400 new books for patients of all ages, infant through teen/young adult. ECBC also delivered to CHOC 10 more Read Think Thrive Bags, which are our book bags filled with ten new books and book crafting supplies — to be gifted to patients who are newly diagnosed with cancer. So in total, we delivered just over 500 new books to the OPI and Oncology Clinic today! While setting up the library cart at OPI today, I witnessed an elementary school aged boy select a nonfiction book about rocks and minerals (with actual minerals included) — and while he waited to be called for his infusion, he chose to read the book with his dad (rather than play on a device)! #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer

If you’d like to contribute to next month’s outpatient delivery day, CLICK HERE to access Ethan’s Targeted Wishlist Fundraiser for February, which is focusing on board books.


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Thank you Tustin Community Partners!

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.


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If You’re Looking ot Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Before the End of 2023…

If you’re looking to make an end-of-year gift to a charity before January 1, please consider supporting ECBC! We are currently gifting approximately 500-600 new books per month to patients at CHOC, and donations are greatly needed to meet this significant demand. All donations will go directly towards helping hospitalized kids (especially kids battling cancer and other life-altering conditions) thrive through treatment with high-quality books and read-aloud experiences. For example, a $20 donation may buy a book for a child who is inpatient on the oncology floor; a $150 donation may provide a book bag containing a mini-library of age and gender appropriate literature for a child just recently diagnosed with cancer; and a $250 donation may provide a Kindle and monthly Kindle books for a teenage oncology warrior. Note that there is also an option to commit to a recurring monthly donation, which is a huge blessing for our tiny nonprofit.  All donations are tax-deductible (ECBC Is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, EIN 83-2934289), and donors are acknowledged on the items they fund. You can click on the link below to donate.


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Merry Christmas from ECBC!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! ECBC has enjoyed celebrating the holidays with CHOC patients by providing holiday-themed literary joy throughout the month. For the last few weeks, we have been reading aloud wonderful Christmas and other December holiday literature to patients at bedside through our bedside reading program. We have also gifted new holiday books to kids who are inpatient and stuck in isolation via our mobile gifting cart. We delivered a substantial number of holiday book to the outpatient side of the hospital — the Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology Clinic — more than 500 new titles. We provided storytime at Miracle Manor’s Christmas party (Miracle Manor is Miracles for Kids’ subsidized housing for families of CHOC patients). And, we delivered holiday cards to CHOC patients that were handwritten by local elementary and high school students. In total, we gave away approximately 800 books this month that hopefully resulted in additional quality time with excellent Christmas/Hanukkah/Diwali/Kwanzaa literature!

THANK YOU to everyone who donated books this month and helped to make this all possible. If you would like to make an end-of-year gift to ECBC to help fund our December book gifting, please click on the link below. Note that there is also an option to commit to a recurring monthly donation, which will help to fund our ongoing monthly book gifting (which is about 500 books/month — approximately $5000 in cost per month). All donations are tax deductible (ECBC Is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, EIN 83-2934289).

Thank you for helping Orange County’s hospitalized kids to thrive through the holidays with high-quality books and reading!


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Thank you TVT!

THANK YOU to Tarbut V’Torah (TVT) Community Day School’s Lower Campus for conducting another AWESOME book drive for ECBC alongside your school’s book fair! TVT donated a total 397 new books in literally every category that we need them, and as usual they are all terrific highly popular titles. TVT has always used friendly competition to boost student participation, and this year they had a different twist: Every class that donates 25 books would receive an ice cream party, and the grade level to donate the most books also would receive a lunch party. What a brilliantly inclusive way to structure the competition! Congratulations to the 4th graders for donating the most books!

A special shout-out to the Leadership class for promoting the book drive by making posters to put around campus. And thank you to Kimberly Lee and Leigh Choueke for all your work in helping to coordinate the book drive. And thank you TVT for providing fun incentives! This is the SEVENTH year that TVT has conducted a book drive for ECBC — collecting anywhere between 200 to 1000+ books for us each year and a total of 2625 books across the years. TVT, you have made a difference in the success of our tiny non-profit! We are so very grateful for this partnership.


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It’s Giving Tuesday!

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.

Holiday wish list link is http://bit.ly/decemberholidaybooks or use QR code below. THANK YOU!


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Thank You Yorba Linda Middle School!

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!


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A New High School ECBC Club!

A new ECBC support club was just started by students at at El Dorado High School in Yorba Linda!  Club founders Leila Do (President), Mialani Tran (VP), and Madi Huang (publicity) titled their club Books for CHOC, and they received 100 student sign-ups at club rush! Similar to the ECBC support club at Foothill High School, this club aims to support the mission of ECBC by helping to provide books and literacy support materials for ECBC’s ongoing programs at CHOC Children’s Hospital. They plan to conduct one fundraiser or book raiser each semester; make holiday cards, care cards, and bookmarks; and help to decorate book donation boxes. And they will offer community service hours for students who participate in their activities. Congratulations Lelia, Mialani, and Madi on your new club; we can’t wait to see what you do!

ECBC is so grateful for the few existing ECBC support clubs, as they help to spread awareness about our cause, assist with the high volume of books ECBC needs for donations each month, and result in wonderful student-created materials (e.g., cards, bookmarks) that are creative and personal. The clubs also provide high school students with impactful leadership opportunities so they are a win-win for all!

If you or a teen you know is interested in starting a club at your own high school, please check out the information/ideas sheet below. Contact Ali at ali@ECbookclub.com to learn more. 

School-based-Ethan-and-Choco-clubsDownload


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Thank you Laguna Road Elementary, and Will!

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!


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BOO-ks for Treats 2023 Was a Success!

ECBC had a BLAST yesterday hosting our annual BOO-ks for Treats at CHOC’s Halloween event! We gave away 428 new Halloween-themed books to costumed patients and their siblings who trick-or-treated at the hospital – -with patientgs having a fantsatic selection to choose from including traditional Halloween stories, Halloween joke books, anthologies of ghost stories, teen horror, spooky comic-style graphic novels, and books of creepy facts! This is a favorite event for ECBC — it’s so fun to be behind the thrill that kiddos (and their parents) express when coming up on our booth and realizing they get to pick out a wonderful book or two to add to their stash of candy and trinkets!

Thank you to everyone who supported our Halloween book drive leading up to BOO-KS for Treats — which requires a large number of specific titles to be collected quite quickly! And a huge shout out to Kera Montoya and Paper Pie for hosting a fundraiser that provided a significant number of books and helped us get to the totals we needed. Thank you also to Foothill High Schools Ethan & Choco Club for making awesome Halloween cards to give to patients as well. We so appreciate our community’s support in making this event happen!


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Monthly Outpatient Delivery!

This week we re-stocked our gifting libraries at CHOC’s Outpateint Infusion Center and the Oncology  Clinic with 455 new books — with several hundred of them being super fun Halloween-themed titles. We still need many more Halloween books for our big BOO-ks for Treats event next week on the inpatient side of the hospital. Please donate if you can! bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC


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THANK YOU PaperPie

THANK YOU to Paper Pie and Kera Montoya for these awesome 75 new Halloween-themed books! And thank you to everyone who supported Kera’s Cards for a Cause fundraiser which raised the funds for these books! We still need several hundred more Halloween books for our BOO-ls for Treats event at CHOC! Donate at http://bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC or click on link below.

ECBC_halloween_flyer-UPDATE.23Download