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: ThrivePartnerSchool


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Thank You Hicks Canyon!

THANK YOU Hicks Canyon Elementary School for conducting yet another book drive for ECBC, and for the 80 terrific books that you donated this week! This was your 4th consecutive year collecting books for ECBC, and at two book drives per year — your seventh book drive! Your commitment to helping our cause has helped us so much the last several years, and we are so grateful!  A very special thank you to Tina Jussal for making this (and every) Hicks book drive happen! #thrivepartnerschool #books4CHOC #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer


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Another Amazing Book Drive at Hewes Middle School!

THANK YOU to Hewes Middle School families for the 338 new books that you donated to Ethan & Choco’s Book Club last month! This was Hewes’ fourth consecutive year hosting their own school book drive, and as in the past, they delivered a terrific collection of new, high-quality books for patients of all ages from infant/toddler through teen and young adult. Which included a LARGE number of graphic novels and board books, our two most needed book types!

A special thank you to Ms. Cordero’s first period class (pictured below) for winning first place in the class competition by donating the most number of books — her class brought in 115 new books, more than 1/3 of the total! They will receive a private Hula Hoop Throw Down party with donuts and music during 1st period. Way to go Ms. Cordero’s class! 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 as a lead contributing Thrive Partner School — and you provide a terrific model for how to organize and incentivize student/family support. THANK YOU! We can’t wait to share these awesome books with oncology patients at CHOC Children’s Hospital!


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Thank you AGAIN Hicks Canyon Elementary!

THANK YOU Hicks Canyon Elementary School PTA and families for hosting a SECOND book drive this year for ECBC and for your donation this past week of 83 new books. Per Hicks’ usual donation, the collection included all wonderful high-interest titles, including many graphic novels and easy chapter books, which we really need. Hicks Canyon conducted 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 176 new books during the 2024-2025 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 Grace Lutheran School!

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!


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Another Successful Hewes Middle School Book Drive!

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!


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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 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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THANK YOU TVT!!!

HOW COMPLETELY AMAZING IS THIS??! Tarbut V’ Torah (TVT) Lower School just collected and donated 1,024 new books for ECBC! This is impressive for a school of any size, but TVT’s lower school has only 410 students! A ton of great books of every type — this will help us for months! TVT has always been our strongest school partner, donating 200 or more books every year since we started ECBC. But this year they knocked it out of the park! They beat their own school record from 2019 of 310 books, and they far exceeded their goal for this year of 350 books. They also almost doubled the school donation record across all school donors of 531 books!

THANK YOU TVT families for helping ECBC help hospitalized kids to thrive through treatment with books and reading. Congratulations to the 4th graders for collecting the most books and earning the ice cream party (which apparently the whole school now gets due to the generous cash kickback from Scholastic!)! And a very special thank you to the Diaz family for your super significant contribution!!!  Also thank you to the 4th/5th grade leadership class for your amazing efforts at rallying the school with your posters and videos — it is so exciting to hear that every kid got on board! And thank you to Galina and Hayley for all your help organizing the book drive. ECBC is so very grateful for our ongoing partnership with TVT!


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Ethan speaks at TVT

Co-founder Ethan speaks at Tarbut v’ Torah’s (TVT) Lower School, where he shares his story of battling cancer and founding ECBC. This kicked off the book drive that TVT will host next week alongside their school book fair, where the 4th and 5th grade leadership class will try to rally the school to beat their 2019 record of 310 books. ECBC is so grateful for TVT’s annual support since 2016! 


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THANK YOU Fairmont Private School North Tustin!

A huge THANK YOU to Fairmont Private School North Tustin Campus for your donation of 139 books—all great, high-demand titles! A great success for a small school of only 300 students! And thank you Tina Jussal for coordinating the book drive! We are so grateful for your support! And even more grateful to learn that Fairmont wants to support us every year! (We need more Thrive Partner schools who support us annually). #schoolbookdrive #thrivepartnerschool #kidshelpingkids #readthinkthrive #thriveagainstcancer #cognitivehealth


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Thank You TVT!

A GIGANTIC thank you to Tarbut V’ Torah’s Lower School for their amazing donation of 310 awesome books, which they collected during their recent Scholastic Book Fair. This is TVT’s 4th consecutive year holding a book drive for ECBC, and this donation is the largest number of books we have received from a school to date! THANK YOU TVT for your ongoing commitment to ECBC and reading for kids at CHOCk Children’s Hospital; we appreciate your support so very much. A special thank you to TVT kindergartener and Leukemia warrior Liam for helping to deliver the books! What a terrific way to start off 2020!

Ethan & Liam making sure kids at CHOC have books to THRIVE AGAINST CANCER like they have! (click image for brief clip)


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Thank you Myford Elementary School!

Ethan with the 309 new books from Myford Elementary School!

Thank you Myford Elementary School for your amazing donation this week of 309 new books (mostly for our Gifting Library)!!!  This is our most significant school donation yet! This donation included terrific titles for all ages and interests, including highly popular chapter books and picture books (e.g., I Survived books, Percy Jackson books, Roald Dahl books, Judy Blume books; Magic Tree House books, Beverly Cleary books, Weird School books, many Newbery winners, high interest graphic novels, and much more). We now have a heightened need for new book donations since we are giving away so many at CHOC, and especially since we are getting ready to launch the first phase of our inpatient program on the patient floors at CHOC!

Also, a HUGE thank you to Myford Elementary teacher Mrs. Danielle Clawson for organizing this awesome effort (and of course to Principal Rena Fairchild for supporting it)! Mrs. Clawson rallied her school behind a school-wide Scholastic book drive, where they attached a cover letter to students’ Scholastic Book Club order forms that were sent home, giving parents the opportunity to order books for hospitalized kids. We are so excited that so many Myford families contributed!

Scholastic Book Club orders are such a terrific and easy way for schools to bookraise for ECBC, because book collection efforts can occur alongside schools’ already existing Scholastic book order programs. Teachers benefit too, because the additional book purchases earn them more points for receiving books for their classroom libraries. We are finding that attaching a cover letter to book order forms is an easy way to do this — Click here  to download this letter. You may also email us at ECBC@maxloveproject.org to receive an editable version of this letter that can be modified to work for your school. Please consider following Myford Elementary’s lead and organizing a school-wide Scholastic Book Club book drive! We want to add more schools to our small starter list of ECBC Thrive Partner Schools!

A few Myford Elementary students with their book donations!

Thank you Myford Elementary and Mrs. Clawson, we appreciate you so much!


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Thank you Tarbut V’Torah — ECBC needs more schools like you!

THANK YOU to Tarbut V’Torah’s Lower School for such an AMAZING student-led book drive! TVT collected 219 new books in just one week, and this school only has 253 students! Here’s Ethan’s video explaining what TVT did and thanking this awesome school. We need more schools like Tarbut to help us create a sustainable library at CHOC Children’s Hospital! 

Click here to view Ethan’s video thanking Tarbut.
Email to find out more about leading a school book drive or becoming a Thrive Partner school!


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TVT Community Day School is ECBC’s first Thrive Partner school!

img_0160-2How awesome is this?! A couple weeks ago, fifth graders at Tarbut V’Torah (TVT) organized a book drive at their school book fair, and the Lower School collected a total of 250 new, high-quality books for the library that we are building at CHOC Children’s Hospital! Afterwards, the school invited Ethan to their campus and presented him with the books in a very special school assembly. Afterwards, I sent a thank-you note to the school, and in return I received an amazing note from Laura Roth, the principal of TVT’s Lower School. Principal Roth’s note expressed TVT’s commitment to hold an annual book drive to benefit ECBC and CHOC. We are so excited to have our first Thrive Partner school (a commitment to ongoing annual support)! Thank you TVT!  Click here to view Principal Roth’s letter: tarbut-ecbc-thrive-partner-letter

I am sharing this letter in hopes that TVT can hopefully inspire other Orange County schools to get on board and support ECBC’s efforts to build a library for Orange County’s hospitalized kids. Building and maintaining a hospital-based library has some unique demands that include significant built-in loss of books, so we will need to have ongoing support from a variety of sources to create a sustainable library. We’re hoping that Orange County schools can be one key source of support!

Please consider helping your school join Tarbut and become an ECBC Thrive Partner school!  Here are four ways your school can help:

  1. Hold a new book drive at your school. Perhaps get your student leadership on board to organize a school-wide effort.
  2. Collect new books for ECBC as part of your school’s regular book fairs.
  3. Organize a book collection effort for ECBC through your school’s Scholastic Reading Club program.
  4. Collect needed items for Ethan’s Read+Think+Thrive Boxes, which will go to patients at CHOC who are in isolation and can’t borrow books from the Lending Library, as well as to kids battling cancer and life-threatening conditions across the country who have limited access to books. Contact ECBC at ECBC@maxloveproject.org to receive our R+T+T Box Needs List.

* Remember, per hospital policy, all books must be brand new.

Thank you again, TVT, for being our first ECBC Thrive School!