Wonderland BookSavers win the Destination Imagination States Competition!

March 26, 2016Kids and Community ServiceDestination Imagination, Wonderland BookSaversmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

Today, Team WBS competed in the Connecticut States Destination Imagination Tournament. After driving one and a half hours to arrive at Connecticut College for the Destination Imagination competition, we unpacked our props, practiced, and eagerly awaited the time to present our play.

preparing for the states competition

Our practice and preparation paid off! Each team member did an amazing job remembering lines and cues, and created an engaging, theatrical representation of our project.

organizing our props before the play started

In the afternoon, we partook in a hat-making contest, where we attached our team flag to a paper cup/duct tape/paper plate hat constructed Brooks Morgan and the rest of the team. After we created the hat, we marched around in the parade of teams, and then we took our seats for the awards ceremony. After much anticipation, our division was called, and we discovered that we had won first place! We are now looking forward to the next level of competition: The Destination Imagination Global Finals, which will be held in May. The team has worked tirelessly, and we are all excited to progress to the next level.

after the awards ceremony with our medals

Thank you Destination Imagination for helping us imagine the world as a better place with one book, one child, and one school at a time!

Team Wonderland BookSavers Heads to Destination Imagination States

March 25, 2016Kids and Community Service501(c)(3), book lovers, children's book clubs, Community Service, Destination Imagination, Wonderland BookSaversmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

Months of hard work is about to come to fruition. Every year, Team WBS competes in the competition Destination Imagination. The Destination Global Finals are held every year in Knoxville, Tennessee, and teams ranging from elementary age students to college students participate in five different categories of challenges and four different age groups. Students 45 states and 17 countries will be participating at the Global Finals.

At the globals competition in 2015

However, in order to qualify for Globals, we must win first place in our division at the Connecticut State competition. The challenge this year is dubbed “The Meme Event” and in this challenge our team was required to make a meme to promote our project, create a timeline with specific dates and locations regarding our project, and hold a community event to integrate our community in our service work. Destination Imagination has helped our team with requirements in past projects. The first year Wonderland BookSavers competed in DI, we had to make a video about our project. The second year we had to incorporate an elevator pitch. In our third year, we were required to expand our team’s brand, and create a jingle. All these past requirements have proved to be useful in expanding our project.

We chose to use our Haitian-Creole book and Sneetch-Event project as our featured project in our DI challenge, and we have created a play incorporating our steps, successes, and failed aspects of this project.

The team has worked tirelessly on this project since September, and we are eager to compete at the states level of Destination Imagination tomorrow. Wish us luck!

The Book That Almost Flew Away

March 21, 2016Kids and Community Servicebook lovers, Wonderland BookSaversmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

Written by Brooks Morgan

Reid had a birthday party and some of his friends and family attended his party. Among the attending was Brooks. They all had a fun time bouncing around Bounce U, a popular birthday party place. After the party Reid received his presents! One of his presents was a $20 gift card to Barnes & Nobles. He could get so many books there! The card even came attached to balloons! The employees of Bounce U put all of Reid’s presents on a cart and started walking toward his car. All of the sudden, a gust of wind blew away the balloons, and the card attached to it flew high up into the air. Reid was devastated. Luckily for Reid, the card dragged down the balloons closer and closer to the ground. Just when they though they would get their card and balloons back, it landed at the top of a 30 foot tree!

Brooks was not going to let a couple of new books go to waste so he used his climbing skills for a good cause. He climbed and climbed and climbed until finally he was standing at the very last sturdy branch. He looked up and saw that the balloons and the card were only a few feet above him! What was he going to do? He could not reach the cards or balloon, so he started to think. After a minute or two he had an idea. He held onto the branch that the ballons were stuck on and shook and shook and shook and shook. The balloons were too tangled to fall down! He did not give up though, and after about 20 minutes of shaking, the card finally dropped to the ground! He climbed back down and held the card over his head triumphantly.

He had won the card back! He handed the card to his younger brother, Reid, who said with a huge smile,

“Thank you so much!”

Our First Meeting as a 501(c)(3)

March 14, 2016Kids and Community Service501(c)(3), children's book clubs, Community Service, Wonderland BookSaversmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

After much paperwork and stress, Wonderland BookSavers (Wonderland BookSavers Incorporated, to be exact) is a 501(c)(3)!

Beginning our first meeting as a 501(c)(3)

We held our first meeting as a 501(c)(3) on Thursday, March 10, and we discussed a range of topics. Before our meeting officially began, we all convened at the long dinner table and had pizza and lemonade. Once we ate and cleaned up our pizza, we pulled out a folder with our papers.

Our Annual Board Meeting agenda

First, we read the bylaws, and next we discussed our official titles and positions. During the meeting, we reviewed the all of our committees, and which members served on each committee. Our blog followers will be happy to know that six new people have joined the blog committee, and blog posts will be published every week on Mondays.

We have eleven committees, and some of them include the Blog Writing Committee, School Supplies and Shoe Donations Committee, the Book Club Readings and Projects Committee, The First Book 40,000 Committee, and others. Now we will follow a tighter agenda, which will enable us to maximize our efforts and impact.

At the end of our meeting, we also chose the next book we are reading as a club: The Adventures of Pinocchio. We are excited to delve into another book, and into another chapter in our charity.

Converting our charity into a 501(c)(3) is a monumental step in Wonderland BookSavers’ progress. Our project has transformed from a summer book club to an internationally recognized global charity. We look forward to watching Wonderland BookSavers grow even further one hill, one valley, and one day at a time.

Wonderland BookSavers: Our Literature-Inspired Journey to Donating over 60,000 Books Worldwide

March 5, 2016Kids and Community Servicemadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

Below is the article I sent in to Destination Imagination. They asked for DI teams in the service learning category to send in articles about their service experience with DI. Our article may even be featured on DI’s blog! If our article does get put on their website, I will include the link at the top of this article.

And without further ado, the article.

Wonderland BookSavers: Our Literature-Inspired Journey to Donating over 60,000 Books Worldwide

Our charity Wonderland BookSavers was founded in 2012, and our DI story began soon after. When we learned that our local library was shredding books to be made into newspaper, we decided to ask if we could take the books instead and donate them to a local school lacking books. The library agreed to give their books to us instead of shredding them, and we made our first book donation of 685 books to New Beginnings Family Academy in Bridgeport, CT. Since then, our project has expanded significantly. We are now a 501(c)(3), and we have donated over 60,000 books throughout the US and world.

Each DI challenge we have been faced with has helped our charity immensely. Whether the challenge has been to make a video, rattle-off an elevator pitch, expand our charity’s brand, or hold a community event and create a timeline and meme about our project, we have always been able to see the massive benefits created through completing each challenge. The challenge this year, The Meme Event, has prompted us to think outside the box and raise awareness about our charity through our community event, timeline and meme.

Our timeline helps us to convey our charity’s history, which is important for our community partners to know. Also included on our timeline are our current projects, and our goals for each year. Ultimately, the timeline helps our community partners to understand our past successes and our upcoming ambitions while also helping our team have a vision of our direction, guiding us to our goals.

The meme has also proved to be useful in our project. Our meme is able to convey a considerable amount of information even though it is just a picture with words. Our meme inspires a call to action and succinctly informs people on how to get involved. The idea behind our meme is to show people the five simple steps they can make the world a better place with literature. The last step in our meme is spreading the word about our project and charity, which fits perfectly with the concept of a meme- memes are easily spread, easily understood, and when people share our meme with others, they are actually making a huge impact in our community and the world.

We utilized both our timeline and our meme during our community event. We first talked about our charity, using our timeline to discuss the events leading up to our project and our hopes for the future and impact of our project. We showed three classes of first-graders and their librarian at the Barnum School in Bridgeport how to complete the five steps of our meme. We demonstrated this by first reading The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss and some Haitian-Creole books, next discussing the positive and inspiring message shown during the story of the Sneetches, then helping the kids create and decorate a Sneetch machine similar to the star-on and star-off machines from the story. We then presented the Barnum School with a new collection of Dr. Seuss books for their school library, and lastly, we created a banner with notes and drawings for the children in Haiti.

Team Wonderland BookSavers is so grateful for the creativity and guidance bestowed upon us by Destination Imagination. Our past and present DI challenges have led us to new opportunities, and we are excited to have this year’s challenge bloom into another chapter of our charity. Through this year’s challenge, we have already been able to raise $1,099, and with those funds we purchased 200 Haitian-Creole books for the schools we partner with in Haiti. Where will reading take you?

A picture of a first-grader coming out of the Sneetch-machine during our community event

Written by Madeline Langdon on behalf of her DI team, Wonderland BookSavers (Madeline Langdon (16), Claire Langdon (16), Emma Langdon (14), Brooks Barry (12), Andre Mead (12), Brooks Langdon (11), and Reid Barry (9))

The Sneetch Event: From Our Local Library to Bridgeport to Haiti

February 19, 2016Kids and Community Service, Uncategorizedbook lovers, children and community service, children's book clubs, donating children's books, Dr. Seuss, homeschooling community service, kids and community service, kids service projects, sneetch machine, the sneetches, Wonderland BookSaversmadelinelangdon View all 2 comments

By Madeline

Back in June 2015, Wonderland BookSavers donated 850 books to the Barnum School in Bridgeport, CT.

Donating books to the Barnum School in June

We spoke with the librarian, Maureen D’Ascanio, and she told us about the kids’ interests. She explained the hardships children at Barnum School face in their daily lives. Many of the children live in dire conditions and do not receive much support from their parents. Reading, she explained, is critical for a child’s success in all subjects at school. A love and understanding of literature and reading must be instilled at a young age to broaden a child’s academic capabilities and success.

A poster hanging from the ceiling at Barnum School’s Library

Dr. Seuss books are the favorite books of the younger kids at Barnum School. Dr. Seuss books are iconic and widely appreciated, making them less likely to be donated and given away. The books possess alluring creativity and an appealing rhyme scheme, making them very popular to younger readers. On the library shelves, we could see the prized pittance of Dr. Seuss books. Due to the demand and popularity of the Dr. Seuss books, children were not permitted to check those books out of the school library. So, we decided to raise money to purchase Dr. Seuss books for the kids at Barnum School.

The Barnum School’s Dr. Seuss books before our donation

Wonderland BookSavers does not need money to operate. The only exceptions would be our annual bake sale at Pequot Library, Lemonade for Literacy, where we make lemonade and bake treats and use our earnings to purchase books for five dollars a box during the last day of the sale. The other exception is for our very recent project of purchasing $1,000 worth of Haitian-Creole books for the children we donate to in Haiti. The money was donated to us by our partner and sponsor, Zoe Barry, founder and CEO of ZappRx. In order to raise money, we decided to have a Dr. Seuss-themed fundraiser. We organized a community event at our local library, Pequot Library. We prepared materials and ideas, and sent out flyers to publicize the event. The library helped us to prepare. We took newspapers, and laid them across the floor. We then placed large refrigerator cardboard boxes on the newspaper. On a table, we set up paper bowls, an assortment of paintbrushes, and tempera paint.

We set a fifteen-dollar admission rate for this event to raise money for Dr. Seuss books. When the children arrived, we ushered them to a blanket we had laid on the floor, and everyone sat down. The children’s librarian, Miss Susan, began story time. Before she began to read, Miss Susan handed out green stars to some people. During the story, when the Sneetches took their stars on and off, everyone would switch stars and take turns having stars and being starless. Everyone listened as she read The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss.

Miss Susan with her star-bellied Sneetch stuffed animal

Miss Susan begins to read The Sneetches and Other Stories

Everyone listens to Miss Susan read The Sneetches and Other Stories

When she had finished reading, we asked the children what they thought the moral of the story was. Their consensus was that it didn’t matter if the Sneetches had stars or not, they were all the same. We discussed how this was actually a larger theme: you should not discriminate against others because of their looks.

After reading and discussing the story, we explained the next portion of the event- building the Sneetch machine. Everyone began to paint the machine.

We took a smaller box, designated it as our tower, and painted it yellow. We painted the tunnel and main chamber of the machine red. With duct tape, we made streamers to cover the entrance of the tunnel. We made green stars, and while you were going through the machine, you could either put a star on, or take a star off. Once the paint had dried, we cut a large hole at one end of largest box. We placed a slide at the exit, and everyone took turns sliding out of the machine.

We left our machine at the library for a few weeks, and eventually dismantled the machine before we brought it to the Barnum School, which is where the machine now resides.

About a month after our event at Pequot Library, we purchased Dr. Seuss books with the money we had made from our fundraiser, and headed to the Barnum school with decorating supplies, a large banner,some Haitian-Creole books to show the children, and the new Dr. Seuss books.

Haitian-Creole Books

We showed the children their new Dr. Seuss books, and we then proceeded to hold our Sneetch-related activities.

Emma and Brooks Morgan pose with the Dr. Seuss books we donated to the Barnum School

We spent the afternoon with three classes of first-graders as they had their library time. We did the same activities with all three groups. First, we would read The Sneetches and Other Stories, and discuss the morals.

Next, we would read and show the children the Haitian-Creole books. After everyone had a chance to look at the Creole books, the kids got to decorate the Sneetch machine in shifts and write a few words and make drawings on the banner we sending to Haiti. But what they were most excited about by far was getting to go through the Sneetch machine.

Everyone lines up to ride the Sneetch machine

The kids lined up, eagerly anticipating their turn to go through the machine. We handed everyone out toy money, like the money the Sneetches paid to go through the machines in the book, and they slipped the money into the admissions box and crawled through the tunnel, walked to the exit, and rode down the slide.

Brooks and I (Madeline) making a tunnel as the children take turns sliding out of the machine

After repeating the activities with each class, we packed up our Creole books and rolled the enormous poster with the names, notes, and drawings of each first-grader scrawled inside. The Sneetch machine and has traveled from our local library to the Barnum School’s library. Our poster brimming with the drawings and messages from Connecticut children will be received by children in Haiti.

Kids working on the poster

The Sneetches and Other Stories has made an impact in our community, at the Barnum school, and will soon make an impact in Haiti. Where will reading take you?

There is no frigate like a book… to take us to Boston

December 30, 2015Kids and Community Service, Uncategorizedchildren and community service, Community Service, donating children's books, kids service projects, Reach Out and Read, Wonderland BookSavers, ZappRxmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

On December 8, Team WBS traveled to the Floating Hospital for Children in Boston at Tufts Medical Center. We drove from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston, Massachusetts, bringing with us 2,000 books boxed and categorized by level. Our car was brimming with our books, team members Reid, Brooks Morgan, Emma, Claire, Madeline, our mothers, and a handcart to transport our books.

Upon arriving at the hospital, we were greeted by medical staff, and members of the ZappRx team. We clambered out of the car and began loading boxes of books onto the cart. Together, we pushed and guided the cart into the hospital and into the elevator.

The steel doors of the elevator opened, and we pushed and carried our books out. Hospital employees welcomed us, and gave us a tour of the hospital. We were informed about the program Reach Out and Read, which the Floating Hospital for Children endorses. Reach Out and Read is a literacy program where whenever children come to the hospital, doctors check their literacy, and each child is allowed to choose a book and bring it home.

Meeting hospital staff

A poster for Reach Out and Read

Once familiar with the hospital and its program, we began to unload our books and stock the empty shelves. We organized books by age groups: infant to five years old, kindergarten to third grade, fourth to eighth grade, and high school.

An organized cabinet of middle and high school books that we donated

A little girl chooses a book

We filled all the shelves with our books, and left a surplus for the hospital to restock with.

Left to right: Claire, Madeline, Reid, Emma, and Brooks Morgan. Posing with some of the books we donated

After departing from the hospital, we headed towards Wellesley, ate lunch, and then proceeded to The Rare Books Collection at Wellesley College where we examined many antiquated, priceless, texts. Some of the texts we saw include a first edition of Martin Luther’s Bible, the first mobile-print Book of Amos, a first edition of Newton’s Principio, a first edition of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, and a medieval manuscript containing religious songs and illustrations.

Sidereus Nuncius

We were able to touch, hold, and examine the books, and the librarians proffered a plethora of information about the content, history, and acquisition of each text.

Book of Amos

Looking at Sidereus Nuncius

Newton’s Principio

Our excursion to Wellesley marked the end of our trip. We headed home with our car devoid of the books it had carried to Boston, and our minds filled with the knowledge and experiences we had acquired throughout the day.

Wonderland BookSavers’ Partner and Sponsor, Zoe Barry

December 23, 2015Kids and Community Servicedonating children's books, Reach Out and Read, Wonderland BookSavers, ZappRxmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

Zoe Barry, the founder and CEO of ZappRx, is a partner and sponsor of Wonderland BookSavers.

She, along with ZappRx, has assisted us in several of our projects and endeavors. Recently, Zoe won the award ONEin3. She donated the money she won with her award to Wonderland BookSavers so we could purchase Haitian-Creole books for the schools and kids we work with in Haiti.

Haitian-Creole books

After winning the award, Zoe helped us arrange a visit to Tufts Medical Center’s Floating Hospital for Children in downtown Boston. The hospital uses a program called Reach Out and Read to check children’s literacy and give children a book every time they go to the hospital.

A Reach Out and Read poster at the hospital

The hospital was running low on books, and since ZappRx is involved in the medical business, Zoe helped to organize a book donation for the hospital. Team WBS boxed 2,000 books, managed to squeeze the team, the books, and a handcart in the car, and embarked on the trip from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston, Massachusetts.

Upon arrival, we met with Zoe’s team and began to transport the books from our car and into the hospital.

We pushed and carried our loads of books into the hospital, received a tour, and then proceeded to stock the shelves with our books.

We were able to fill the shelves and left a surplus of books for the hospital to restock.

Apart from participating in Wonderland BookSavers’ projects, Zoe enjoys doing community service work, especially in regards to helping animals. In the past, she has worked in Alaska saving eagles. Recently, Zoe fostered and formally adopted a bunny from the MSPCA.

Zoe Barry, Founder and CEO of ZappRx

Zoe understands the importance of literature and the power it wields. With regards to our donation to the hospital, Zoe said “…their bookshelves were so empty.. and just to know that children who are so scared in a hospital setting…are able to read a book and have comfort in a story, its really great.”

With regards to her success in the business world and winning ONEin3, Zoe stated: “Literature can help you run a business. I told a story. I painted a picture with words about how and why I founded ZappRx, what the mission was, how painful it is to not have access to a medication, what happens to a patient when they can’t have access to a medication, and how this inspired me to found ZappRx. And when you have a core mission and you can articulate it well, you can spread that passion centric to founder and spread it to other team members and really motivate people to overcome all odds and put a product to the market and be successful.”

Thank you to Zoe and ZappRx for all of their help! We hope that you continue to make the world a better place whether it is alongside Wonderland BookSavers or with endeavors of your own.

WBS Junior: Completing the Pumpkin Craft

November 1, 2015Uncategorizedmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

Halloween crept closer, and each day Ella and Wills impatiently anticipated adding more feature to their pumpkins. Wills was so excited, he managed to get a hold of the pumpkin features, and peeled off all of the backing. However, Ella promptly reported the incident, and I put all the adhesive black foam features on a sheet of wax paper so that Ella and Wills could continue adding parts of the pumpkin face each day.

Here are pictures of Ella and Wills putting together their pumpkins.

27th

Wills sitting by our pirate jack-o-lantern.

Ella and Wills’ pumpkins in our kitchen.

Today, the stem was supposed to be put on the pumpkin. However, since Ella and Wills had their pumpkins hanging in our kitchen as art, we added the stems earlier.

28th

On this day, Ella and Wills put mouths on their pumpkins.

29th

Next, it was time to add the nose.

30th

Then, they added their ears.

Wills making a scary face next to his pumpkin

31st

Finally, Ella and Wills adorned eyes on their pumpkins.

Ella and Wills finished their pumpkins just in time for Halloween!

Ella and Wills at a Halloween party

Everyone trick-or-treating

WBS Junior: Pumpkin Countdown Craft

October 28, 2015Uncategorizedmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

As the fall leaves change, Junior Wonderland BookSavers Ella and Wills have become increasingly enthralled with Halloween. Almost daily, they steal away to our basement to rummage through the boxes and baskets of our collection of costumes. At night, they plead for us to read Halloween stories. Every morning when they wake up, they drape themselves in blankets and run around the house being ghosts. Thus it seemed natural for their next project to be Halloween themed.

We chose one of our favorite Halloween books from when we were younger: Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin by Rick Walton, illustrated by Delana Bettoli.

In the story, a mysterious pumpkin shows up by Mrs. McMurphy’s front door on October 27, and it has “a wicked, wicked grin.” The pumpkin boasts that it will soon grow teeth to eat Mrs. McMurphy, but Mrs. McMurphy is not impressed, and carries the pumpkin out of her house and places it on the porch. The next day, as Mrs. McMurphy gets up to milk her cows, she discovers that the pumpkin is on her sofa. But now the pumpkin has its “wicked, wicked grin” and a “crooked nose”! The pumpkin tells her “My nose is here. I smell you. When my teeth are here, I’ll eat you!” However, without hesitation, Mrs. McMurphy promptly puts the pumpkin into her shed.

On October 29, just as Mrs. McMurphy prepares to feed her pigs, she finds the pumpkin in her kitchen doorway, and today, it has two ears. The pumpkin now has a mouth to talk, a nose to smell with, and two ears to hear Mrs. McMurphy. But the pumpkin’s cheekiness will not bother Mrs. McMurphy, and she goes outside, and sends the pumpkin floating down the river. The next day, the day before Halloween, the pumpkin now has eyes. He once again reminds Mrs. McMurphy that tomorrow, he will eat her, but Mrs. McMurphy packages the pumpkin and sends it to the North Pole. On Halloween morning, Mrs. McMurphy goes into her kitchen to do baking. On her stove is the “large pumpkin with a wicked, wicked grin and a crooked nose and two pointy ears, and two mean eyes and large, sharp teeth sitting on her stove.” The pumpkin tells Mrs. McMurphy that he will now eat her. But Mrs. McMurphy doesn’t regard the pumpkin’s threat. And at night, to each of the trick-or-treaters, she gives a slice of pumpkin pie.

With the story complete, Ella and Wills both expressed their favorite parts. Wills liked when the pumpkin was sent down the river, and Ella’s favorite part was when the pumpkin was shivering in the North Pole.

I then began to explain what the craft was.

Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin Craft

Materials: A paintbrush or sponge, orange paint, green construction paper, paper plates, black construction paper or a black sheet of adhesive foam, tape, plastic baggy

Directions: Take a paper plate, and paint the plate orange using a paintbrush or sponge. As your plate dries, have an adult or mature supervisor cut features (ears, eyes, nose, mouth) out of the black construction paper or black adhesive foam for the pumpkin face. Be creative when you’re cutting the features! Wills chose circle eyes and a square nose instead of the usual triangles, and Ella wanted her pumpkin’s mouth to be a grin and not have any teeth.

Wills’ pumpkin face on the left, Ella’s pumpkin face on the right.

Once you have cut out all the features for the pumpkin, put them in the plastic baggy. If you used construction paper for the features, then you will have to tape the new features on each day. If you used the adhesive foam, then when the time comes to place each feature on the pumpkin, you will just need to peel off the backing. Also, cut out a rectangle to be the stem of the pumpkin, but do not put the stem on the pumpkin yet. Starting on October 27, you can use the pumpkin as a visible countdown calendar to Halloween. On the 27, add the stem, on the 28, add the mouth, on the 29, add the nose, on the 30, add the ears, and Halloween add the eyes.

Ella and Wills both had a great time making their pumpkin countdown calendar, and can’t wait to put it into use!