We had such a great time at the Orange County Book Festival on Sunday! It was ECBC’s first time being at a public event (beyond our elementary school), and it was amazing to share what we are doing with other book-lovers and our broader Orange County community. We sold some merchandise and received some new book and cash donations, but more importantly we connected with a lot of people and spread awareness about our efforts to bring books to hospitalized kids! Ethan met numerous wonderful local authors who donated their own books, many of whom also expressed interest in being guest author readers at CHOC when we get things going there. Ethan had a blast presenting at the Storyteller’s Stage, where he shared his story and founding of ECBC with a captive audience of young readers and parents and then read aloud one of his favorite picture books. No shyness for this ambassador of reading — his only complaint was that he wanted a bigger stage and a bigger audience! And we were so excited to have a few girls from Girl Scout troop #3115 — who just joined forces with ECBC to help us collect books and other supplies for our new Read+Think+Thrive boxes (reading kits for kids battling cancer who can’t benefit from the hospital library because they are in isolation at CHOC or are at another hospital where they have limited access to books — more on this in another post!). Thank you, girls, for working so hard and collecting over 70 books for the reading kits! And, I think the best part of it all was watching Ethan sit front and center at the booth, proudly telling his story and sharing his cause to everyone who visited. I have no idea how he was able to do this tirelessly for 7 hours in the heat — a true sign of his tremendous commitment to this!

Ethan sharing his story with a Festival-goer!

Ethan was thrilled when CHOCO himself came by the booth!

Presenting on the Storyteller’s Stage

We thank Barry Ackerman (co-founder of the Book Festival) for helping get ECBC involved in this great event. And thank you also to Steve Murow for funding the booth space –we are so grateful for both of your support. Thank you also to Once Upon a Storybook for your ongoing support and collection of books for us through your fantastic customers. And of course thank you to our family and friends who came out in the heat to support us!!

Ethan with a few girls from Troop 3115

Ethan and Captain Tall Tale — how fun would it be to have him come read to kids at CHOC?!