Matt Ferraguto and Heather Robinson at The Wiggles concert in Worcester in November.      National Center Updates Reading is Wiggle-Recommended The Wiggles, world-famous children's entertainers, promoted early literacy and supported Reach Out and Read on their "Go Bananas Live!" Summer and Fall Tours. The Wiggles encouraged every family who attended their concerts in 75 U.S. cities to join them in supporting ROR by bringing a new children's book to be donated to a child in need in the region! In addition, The Wiggles created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) for television and radio to promote ROR and the book drive, which was distributed nationwide! And The Wiggles themselves, most of whom have background in early childhood education, continue to promote ROR in their interviews with local newspapers and TV stations. Special thanks go out to Heather Hall, Coalition Leader for ROR-Ohio, for introducing us to The Wiggles and making this special partnership possible! Reach Out and Read National Center Welcomes New National Programs Coordinator The Reach Out and Read National Center is pleased to welcome Abigail Dalton as our new National Programs Coordinator. A native New Yorker, Abby joins us after a stint at Penguin Group (USA), where she worked with authors such as T.C. Boyle and Garrison Keillor. You can reach her at abigail.dalton@reachoutandread.org, or 617-455-0631 with any programmatic questions. ROR Launches National Guard and Reserve Outreach Pilot Project We are excited to announce that Reach Out and Read has initiated a Pilot Project to serve National Guard/Reserve families. Recognizing that National Guard and Reserve families are often geographically separated from military communities, Reach Out and Read is launching this pilot project to serve National Guard/Reserve families at existing ROR civilian Programs. This pilot will begin in locations where there are large concentrations of Guard/Reserve personnel, in New Hampshire and North Carolina, and will expand to include additional states over the next few months. As a part of this pilot initiative, each participating ROR Program will receive materials, including ROR Military Posters and resources from ZERO TO THREE and the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) to educate medical providers about the National Guard/Reserve families they serve. In addition, the Programs will receive resources to offer parents and a list of doctor-recommended books that address issues that children of military families may face including separation, deployments, and homecomings. The ROR National Center worked with All About Books, Charlesbridge, and Star Bright Books on special offers for the recommended military books. Our hope is that with continued public and private support, Reach Out and Read will become the standard of care for all military families (Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve) worldwide. Please contact Stacie Fredriksson at 617-455-0658, stacie.fredriksson@reachoutandread.org for more information. ROR to host Literacy Development Program Special Interest Group (SIG) at 2010 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting In this time of reduced travel budgets and other financial constraints, Reach Out and Read will once again not host a national conference in 2010. However, ROR will organize and host the Literacy Development Special Interest Group (SIG) at the 2010 Pediatric Academic Societies' Annual Meeting (PAS) to be held May 1 - 4 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Keynote speaker at the SIG will be Linda Siegel, Ph.D., member of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Education in Vancouver, whose presentation will focus on identification of children at risk for school failure. Additional topics for presentation and discussion will include current research, provider best practices, and links to health literacy initiatives. All PAS Annual Meeting attendees are invited to attend. Reach Out and Read Standardizes Progress Report Dates The Reach Out and Read National Center is pleased to announce that it has standardized the dates biannual Progress Reports are made available and due. January Progress Reports will by posted on myROR.org by January 15th, and will be due by March 31st of each year. July Progress Reports will be available by July 15th, and will be due by September 30th of each year. Please contact abigail.dalton@reachoutandread.org with any questions.   Return