Lara Zielin

ARE YOU READY FOR YOUTH LITERACY DAY? <– If you say this like the guy says “Are you ready for some football?” on the NFL commercials, it’s really exciting.

Youth Literacy Day is this Thursday, 8/26, and will celebrate the power of reading, writing, and self expression. 826 organizations, founded by David Eggers, are heading up the charge for Youth Literacy Day by asking people to support the 826 chapters in their city.

I’m getting behind this because I know firsthand how books can forever impact kids and teens. I grew up in a small Wisconsin town but I don’t believe I limited myself because I saw so many possibilities in the pages of the novels I was always reading. Books infused me with the passion to become a writer — something they still do, in fact. Growing up, when I didn’t have any friends — something I experienced more often than I would have liked — I always had literary characters who, even if they couldn’t leap off the pages and talk to me, at least were often going through similar things.

Can you support Teen Literacy by donating $8.26 on 8/26 through www.826on826.org?

Need more convincing? No worries. I’m making this Youth Literacy Week on Larawrites.com, so I’m all about sharing the youth literacy love until this awesome organization has all the money they need.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 pm and is filed under inspiration, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.