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

Tag Archives: HalloweenBookDrive


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Thank You, Again, NCL North Tustin!

Thank you NCL North Tustin for hosting yet another book drive, this time a Halloween book drive, and your usual amazing results! ECBC just received NCL’s donation of 258 new books — 236 of them specifically Halloween-themed for ECBC’s upcoming Halloween book gifting events at CHOC. Also, every book came with a handmade Halloween-themed bookmark, many of them so beautifully done!

A special thank you to Ali, Kendall, and Haley Langdon for organizing the book drive, collecting/bookplating/sorting the books, and delivering them!

THANK YOU NCL for your ongoing support of ECBC! Over the past several years, you have donated more than $11,000 worth of new books; you have helped CHOC patients to read, think, and thrive through life-altering treatment and long hospital stays. We have so appreciated you!


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Final Opportunity to Donate a Book to ECBC!

Please help ECBC celebrate ten years of impact at CHOC Children’s Hospital by supporting Ethan’s LAST Halloween book drive and ECBC’s LAST book gifting event — BOO-ks for Treats! Click below to hear from Ethan.

To donate a book, go to:
https://bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC


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Halloween BOOks at CHOC!

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! 

 


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THANK YOU NCL North Tustin!

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


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ECBC’s Halloween Book Drive!

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!


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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


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Halloween Book Drive!

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!


bit.ly/Halloweenbooks4ECBC


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THANK YOU Andersen Elementary School!

Andersen Elementary School in Newport Beach hosted a coin drive for ECBC alongside their school book fair. With the funds collected, they were able to purchase 102 new Halloween books for our Halloween book gifting at CHOC next week! THANK YOU Andersen Elementary for supporting ECBC and for helping us get closer to the significant number of books we need to collect!


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Thank you Orange Chamber of Commerce!

Thank you to the Orange Chamber of Commerce for conducting a Halloween book drive in the month of September, and of course thank you to everyone who contributed to it. They collected a terrific collection of 119 new Halloween-themed books, which gives us a great start towards the 600 books that we need for our BOO-ks for Treats Halloween event at CHOC Children’s Hospital. And a huge THANK YOU to Orange Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Elizabeth Holloman for all your work to organize and oversee the book drive — sharing the wish list, opening all the packages, bookplating with donor names; we appreciate your help so very much!!

If anyone didn’t get a chance to donate a Halloween book and would like to, we still need hundreds! You can select a book off our list and it will come directly to Ethan & Choco’s Book Club: https://a.co/8wsb23B


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Halloween Book Drive for CHOC Children’s Hospital!

It’s October, which means it’s time to turn to our Halloween book drive for our 6th annual BOO-ks for Treats event at CHOC Children’s Hospital. This is always a hard ask immediately after our BOOK IT fundraiser. However, this event has become a significant part of CHOC’s Halloween celebration, it is especially important to our founder Ethan, and the number of books that we need for it is quite hefty (approximately 600 new books). If you didn’t get a chance to donate to BOOK IT, please listen to Ethan’s video and consider purchasing a book or two from our Halloween-themed Amazon wish list. Especially since we only made it to halfway of our fundraising goal for BOOK IT, your help with this is even more important. Patients love getting high-quality Halloween themed books along with their usual candy and trinkets, so we absolutely LOVE being able to provide “literary candy” for the kids! All books purchased from this wish list will go directly to ECBC, and bookplates with donor names will go on every book. THANK YOU!

CLICK HERE FOR AMAZON WISH LIST LINK.


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Halloween Book Drive for CHOC Children’s Hospital!

It’s October 1st, which means it’s time to turn from our annual BOOK IT fundraiser to our 5th annual Halloween book drive — a difficult thing to do right on the heels of BOOK IT, but usually BOOK IT ends on race day in the first week of September, not on September 30. We need approximately 500-600 books for patients who are stuck in the hospital on Halloween, as well as for kids who are visiting CHOC’s Outpatient Infusion Center and the Oncology clinic around that time. Please listen to Ethan’s video and consider donating a book if you didn’t get a chance to contribute to BOOK IT! Before Covid we received most our books for this from school book fairs and school book drives, which isn’t happening right now, so we could use all the support we can get to make this happen! Especially since we only made it to almost halfway of our fundraising goal for BOOK IT, your help with this is even more important. Patients LOVE getting high-quality Halloween themed books along with their usual candy and trinkets, so we absolutely LOVE being able to provide “literary candy” for the kids! All books purchased from this wish list will go directly to ECBC, and bookplates with donor names will go on every book. THANK YOU!

CLICK HERE FOR AMAZON WISH LIST LINK.


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ECBC’s Halloween Book Drive

This is the last week to donate to ECBC’s Halloween Book Drive for our annual BOO-KS for Treats at CHOC Children’s Hospital. Please click below to view Ethan’s video plug. You may CLICK HERE to purchase Halloween-themed books from our Amazon Wish List — all books purchased will be sent directly to ECBC and donor names written on bookplates.

Click above to view


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Please Help Us with our Halloween-Themed Book Drive!

Now that it’s October, we are starting to collect Halloween-themed books for ECBC’s 2nd Annual BOO-KS for Treats at CHOC Children’s Hospital! CHOC’s Halloween trick-or-treating event is a special event for Ethan, as he participated in it just two days after he was diagnosed with Leukemia and the same day that he had surgery to place his port and begin chemotherapy. CHOC has 100+ booths for patients and siblings to trick or treat at (candy, toys, Build-a-Bear), and ECBC’s BOO-KS for Treats booth let’s them trick-or-treat for new Halloween books! We need 300-400 books for patients and sibs of all ages. Please click here to access our Halloween-themed wish list. All books purchased will be sent directly to ECBC and stamped with donor name. Thank you for your help!! #HalloweenBookDrive #BOOKSFORTREATS#HospitalizedKidsNeedBooksToo


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Ethan’s Halloween Book Drive Was a Success!

WOW — what a collection of Halloween-themed books we have for our Books for Treats booth tomorrow at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Over the last few weeks, we collected a total of 371 new, high-quality Halloween books of all kinds (board books, picture books, beginning readers, easy chapter books, and middle grade chapter books). Thank you to Arroyo Elementary School for the 156 Halloween books you donated (as well as the additional 44 non-Halloween books you donated this month) — Principal Sheyka, we appreciate your support on social media and on campus so much!

Thank you also to the National League of Young Men Tustin (Class of 2020), and especially Aidan Miller,  for the 64 Halloween-themed books that you collected as part of your terrific book drive (230 books total).

And thank you to Once Upon a Storybook for the beautiful display you created in your store this month to support our Halloween book drive, as well as for the 27 Halloween-themed books your customers purchased to donate!  And finally, thank you Amazon customers for the 124 books you donated by purchasing off our Halloween Wish List. A special thank you to the following for the significant number of books you donated: Sharon and Tod Paris (56 books), Ashley Netsky (23 books), and Rob and Brooke Lieberman (20 books). We easily made our goal of 250-300 books, and we can’t wait to give these to CHOC patients tomorrow. Thank you everyone for your support!!! 


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Please help us collect a few more books for Ethan’s Halloween Book Drive!

Orange County – This is the LAST WEEK of Ethan’s Halloween book drive for ECBC’s Books for Treats event on Halloween at CHOC Children’s Hospital! If you haven’t donated yet, please consider donating a new Halloween book to help us get to our goal of 300 books so kids who are inpatient on Halloween can trick-or-treat for books! Ways to donate are (1) visit Once Upon a Storybook and purchase a book to add to our donation box at the store, (2) put a new book in ECBC’s large donation box by the front office at Arroyo Elementary School, and (3) visit our Halloween Book Drive wish list on Amazon at http://a.co/1o8eo3B to buy a book that is sent directly to ECBC. Thank you so much for your support! 


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Ethan’s Halloween Book Drive

Please help Ethan collect Halloween-themed books for kids are inpatient CHOC Children’s Hospital during Halloween! Every year CHOC holds an awesome trick-or-treating event for patients and siblings, and this year ECBC is hosting “Books for Treats” — our own booth where we will give away Halloween books! There are several ways you can help, including:

  •   Purchasing books off our Halloween Book Wish List on Amazon.com. Click here to access it.
  •   Visiting Once Upon a Storybook in Tustin, where you can purchase Halloween books to put in our donation basket at the store.
  • Bring books to Arroyo Elementary to put in ECBC’s book donation box.
  • Visit the Arroyo book fair and purchase/donate Halloween-themed books there.

Remember, all books must be brand new.  

Check out Ethan’s video to learn more. If you haven’t supported ECBC in a while, this is a great one to jump in on because it has special meaning to Ethan (see video) and it comes at the three year anniversary of his diagnosis.