Miss Molly’s Grade 3 students at Kalihi Elementary welcomed RIF volunteers with an unexpected musical performance during this month’s school visit!  It was a lovely way to start the morning, capped by the excitement of selecting their own books, plus a *bonus* book picked with their eyes closed.

There were lots of smiling faces at our sixteen schools as we wrapped up our book distributions for the winter. All of our preschool through third grade students took home a new book to read.  The variety of books available resulted in children taking their time to peruse the selection before they chose the book they wanted for themselves. The students are already happily anticipating selecting their final books for the  school year in April and May. 

RIF President and CEO Alicia Levi was on the road this fall, visiting RIF program sites across the county. In September, Alicia was on Oahu to learn about our program and to share RIF’s vision and plan for the next five years.

Alicia accompanied Board members Susan Fuller and Janis Rodden to Kamaile Academy to observe our version of RIF’s Books for Ownership program. They visited several classrooms where our volunteers were reading aloud to students, and experienced the excitement when it was time for each child to select a brand new book of their very own.

Alicia commented, “The RIF services you provide are hugely impactful to the students you serve and it was extremely rewarding and informative for me to be able to visit the schools with your dedicated group of volunteers. The model your team has put in place to run RIF programming is one that I will reflect on often as we work at RIF National to continue to provide support and resources for sites such as yours.”

In celebration of National Literacy Month in September, Reading Is Fundamental is partnering with McDonald’s and Harper Collins to encourage family reading. 

From September 5 – September 18, Happy Meals® nationwide will include a collection of four popular school-themed books, just in time for back-to-school:

• Pete the Cat’s Got Class
• Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School
• Just a School Project
• If You Take a Mouse to School

Families can also explore RIF’s activities, interactive games, and leveled reading passages designed to go with each book title. Print or download these free resources to get your keiki excited about reading as they start a new school year!

To learn more, visit: https://rif.org/mcdonalds

When children start kindergarten, their minds are just beginning to open up to a new world outside of home. Friendships are made that last a lifetime.

Learning to read and access to books introduce young students, through words and pictures, to new ideas. Their minds can roam along with the author’s, to travel to where he wants to take them.

A new school year is about to begin. Where will our young students’ minds journey to this year? New adventures await them.

In May 2017, the Waianae Squeezies, a team of students from Waianae Elementary School and their advisors/teachers, presented RIF-Honolulu with this touching letter and a generous donation:

“Congratulations to the Waianae Squeezies for winning First Place in your division at the Lemonade Alley Competition. We are so proud of you! It is especially heartwarming to us that you have chosen to share some of your hard earned profit with the RIF-Honolulu program. Mahalo for your generous support! We look forward to seeing you next school year.” – The volunteers of RIF-Honolulu

Read full story: Young Entrepreneurs Support RIF 

A big mahalo to ‘Iwalani Hodges, librarian at Nanaikapono Elementary School, who is retiring at the end of this school year.

For 28 years, ‘Iwalani has served both as school librarian and as on-site coordinator for the RIF-Honolulu program. In addition to the usual coordinator duties for the RIF school visits and book distributions, which include scheduling and communicating with teachers, ‘Iwalani made sure that our volunteers knew that they were appreciated with a sumptuous repast at every visit.

The students at Nanaikapono will miss her, and so will the RIF volunteers who have come to know her over the years.

‘Iwalani, we appreciate all that you have done to support the RIF program and volunteers at Nanaikapono, and we wish you all the best as you begin this new chapter in life. 

Mahalo and Aloha from all of us at RIF-Honolulu!

A big mahalo to ‘Iwalani Hodges, librarian at Nanaikapono Elementary School, who is retiring at the end of this school year.

For 28 years, ‘Iwalani has served both as school librarian and as on-site coordinator for the RIF-Honolulu program. In addition to the usual coordinator duties for the RIF school visits and book distributions, which include scheduling and communicating with teachers, ‘Iwalani made sure that our volunteers knew that they were appreciated with a sumptuous repast at every visit.

The students at Nanaikapono will miss her, and so will the RIF volunteers who have come to know her over the years.

‘Iwalani, we appreciate all that you have done to support the RIF program and volunteers at Nanaikapono, and we wish you all the best as you begin this new chapter in life. 

Mahalo and Aloha from all of us at RIF-Honolulu!

The largest library in the USA is the Library of Congress with 34.5 million volumes.

Presidential libraries are established to showcase historical materials from a president’s time in office.

There are public libraries like our wonderful State of Hawaii libraries, where you can request a book or DVD from any branch in the library system and have it sent to your neighborhood library for pickup.

School libraries are quiet havens where good books can be enjoyed.

And there are small “student” libraries created by the children who participate in the RIF-Honolulu literacy program. Each student selects three books during the first year of the program, and each student library will grow to include over a dozen books when the program is completed at the end of grade three. Students who had never before experienced the joy of book ownership now have libraries of their own to share with family and friends, filled with books that they have selected themselves.

Small libraries can grow into big libraries, and with a love of reading, all is possible!

“Myself and two other RIF volunteers recently met a young man who works at one of the new condominiums in Kakaako.  When we discovered he was from Nanakuli we asked him if he had RIF come to his class when he was in elementary school.  

He immediately replied “RIF – Reading Is Fundamental?”  

He had enjoyed RIF in elementary school and we explained we were RIF volunteers.   He couldn’t believe that RIF was still operating and was so excited to be reminded of his enjoyment in receiving the books from RIF growing up.  He let us know that he still had some of those books and to this day enjoys reading very much.

And it was a fulfilling moment for the three of us volunteers to know that our efforts bring such positive results.” – A RIF Volunteer