>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
[ Silence ]
>> The second award of $50,000 is for the American prize,
which goes to 826 National; 826 National is being recognized
for a project developed
and implemented successfully during the past decade
for combatting both illiteracy and aliteracy, which is the problem
of those who can read but for some reason do not read.
826 Literacy uses unique storefront offices in eight cities as basis
for addressing community problems of both literacy and aliteracy,
one on one tutoring for at risk K through 12 students is offered along
with a range of free core programs, including storytelling, bookmaking,
in school writing workshops and publishing projects.
Accepting for 826 National is Gerald Richards,
Chief Executive Officer of 826 National.
[ Applause ]
[ Background noise ]
And Gerald will give the presentation for 826 National.
[ Background noise ]
>> Good afternoon.
Before I begin, I wanted to read some of the work from some
of our students because I think it exemplifies what we do
and what we're all about so the first piece I want to read is
by a young woman from -- who works at 826 Chicago, she's I think now 13
or 14 but at the time of this writing, she was 10
and it's called Who Wants Love.
Love is a great thing because it's made out of hearts and beauty
and prettiness and handsomeness and awesomeness and pow, love goes slow.
Love is ridiculous.
Love is fast like a pony with a wizard costume on a green moustache.
Love is sad.
Love is crazy.
Love is around the world.
Love is a deck of cards.
Family love is happy and cool.
Boyfriend and girlfriend love is yucky and nasty.
When it comes to love, a man has to have a job, a good diploma and has
to have an eight pack and he has to cook and has to look handsome.
He probably has to be in his 30s.
And the second piece is from a student at 826 Michigan,
his name is McKinley Garcia and he's 10-years-old.
If I were any condiment, I would be hot sauce
because I could give the excruciating burn to food
or I could give the cool tickle to your tongue.
I would be pineapple flavored because it's an exotic flavor
for hot sauce and it has an exotic color for hot sauce
because it's yellow and most people think of hot sauce as red or green.
And its texture is not the same as most ingredients in hot sauce.
Tomatoes are saucy and smooth and cilantro is like a cat's tongue,
whereas pineapple is spongy and when you bite into one, it is chewy
and it feels like you are exploding little balloons filled
with pineapple juice.
And I would be behind the ketchup and mustard and next
to the sugar packets and the salt
and pepper would be to the left of me.
I would be behind the ketchup and mustard
because it would be mysterious.
The sugar packets would be to my right
because sugar is my right hand man or woman and salt and pepper
on my left hand man and woman.
On behalf of everyone at 826 National and the 826 Organization,
the students, the volunteers, the staff, the board, the teachers,
the pirates and the time travelers,
thank you for this prestigious honor.
Thank you Mr. Rubenstein and thank you to the Library of Congress,
Dr. Cole, Dr. Billington for something that we think is --
for us is going to help us
and further validates the work that we do.
So when Author Dave Eggers
and Educator Nínive Calegari founded the first chapter of 826 National,
826 Valencia in Chicago, I don't think either
of them dreamed what began as a simple idea
and a zoning issue would flourish into a national
and now international movement.
The simple idea help student from low income
and under resourced communities improve their writing and reading
with the help of caring adults in the community.
826 National is a network of nonprofit creative writing
and after school tutoring centers located in eight cities
in the United States; in San Francisco where we began, New York,
Boston, DC, Chicago, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles and Seattle.
And our organization assists young people in improving their writing
because strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.
Each of our centers offer after school tutoring, in school projects,
storytelling and bookmaking field trips, writing workshops
and our young author's book project,
or as we also call it our publishing program.
All of our programs are offered free of charge to students
who would be unable to get that support elsewhere.
We work on a set of beliefs.
One of the first and foremost is that kids are weird
and that weirdness should be celebrated.
Asking young students to think outside the box is unnecessary
because for kids, there is no box.
Kids need a place where that imagination
and that weirdness is celebrated daily.
It's okay to be creative and let your imagination run wild.
Three; that there are caring adults, volunteers and our writers,
designers, visual artists and business people willing
to give their time to help the young people in their community succeed.
And fourth; 826 chapters and staff are there as a resource to students,
to teachers, to families and to the community.
Though 826 is decidedly unconventional,
the central idea behind our work is simple,
as our cofounder Dave Eggers have said, there are caring adults
in every community wanting to help kids they see every day and kids
in every community are excited and eager for a chance to be heard,
to be listened to, to tell their stories and have help telling them.
The power of 826 comes from bringing those kids and the adults together
and letting them be genuine and real with each other in a setting
that is anything but ordinary.
So like most good stories, we have to go back to the beginning
where it all began and that's 826 Valencia.
So our Dave comes from a family of teachers and he wanted
to help students in the Mission Neighborhood of San Francisco
who seemed to just be hanging out after school
and not really doing any work.
He'd also talked to a lot of teachers, all of whom pointed to one
on one attention as important for students to get engaged
so he gathered some of his writing friends together and said, you know,
why don't we help the kids, we'll start some free tutoring.
So they opened up, put out a shingle out in front of the first center --
or first phase and no one came 'cause what kid goes into a space
with people sitting there wanting to help them
with their homework so it didn't work.
So they decided to rent out a space and build it out,
a space specifically for kids but the space was zoned for retail.
The landlord said you have to sell something and so when they opened
up the first one, inside and they gutted it and built it,
you can see the exposed brick, exposed wood.
Someone said well, it looks like the inside of a ship
so why don't we sell pirate supplies.
So they started creating products, peg leg oil, scurvy be gone,
planks for cats, planks for dogs and to their surprise, the items sold.
But most importantly, the whimsical storefronts allow students to pass
through the normal world into a place where creativity,
fun and learning are celebrated simultaneously.
It helped students engage in their education
without the stigma a tutoring center may bring.
Students are coming to the pirate store in the case on 826 NYC go
through a secret door to enter their very own superhero lair.
In all chapters, students have to go through the store,
passing into the tutoring center, where there are waiting volunteers,
loads of paper, pens and pencils and everything the students need
to write, with walls lined of books for reading.
And these are some of our centers.
This is 826 the Greater Boston Big Foot Research Institute.
In 826 Michigan, it's the Robot Supply and Repair Store.
In LA, it's the Echo Park Time Travel Mart,
wherever you go, we're already then.
There's the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store and the newest one here
in DC, it's about three years old in the Columbia Heights Neighborhood,
the Museum of Unnatural History.
This is the inside of one of our stores and the stores act
as a gateway to the community, attracting students, families
and volunteers, coming to buy their own bottle
of [inaudible] milk or time travel supplies.
The stores act as a gateway and they help to bring in 10 to 15 --
in some cases, 10 to 15% of the revenue,
which channels right back into our programming.
Our chapters are operated in high areas --
in areas with high concentrations of under resourced public schools
and low income families, areas on the brink of gentrification.
And 826 chapters have become integral
and vital parts of their communities.
This is the inside of 826 DC.
You'll see a cave, we have our own cave where the kids like to read
and you can't see it now but there's also a lizard,
the first dinosaur called Alvarez, who the kids come in and write to
and make sure to say hello to Alvarez every morning;
some of the products from [inaudible],
the koala containment unit because koalas are not as nice as they seem
and saber tooth dental floss.
This is the inside of 826 LA which is a 7/11 for time travelers
and they have a second store now so the first store in Echo Park started
out as a 7/11 in the 1980s.
The new center which is
in the [inaudible] neighborhood is what a 7/11 would look like in 1880.
So we have an engaged corps of almost 5,000 volunteers
across the country who come in and work with the students
on their homework or any writing programs.
Last year, we worked with 31,000 students.
Okay, but we realized we were only hitting a small number of students,
the ones that came in the door, the ones that knew where we were,
students find us, their families walk by, they come into the store.
People are like why are you selling pirate supplies and eye patches
and so it brings the kids in and they're excited
and they come right back through to the tutoring center
where there are volunteers waiting to work with them,
eager to help in whatever subject they have.
All -- we publish everything the students write
and give them the opportunity to read everything they write
so there are frequently presentations given by the students,
book release parties and things for students to be celebrated to show
that they can, you know, that their writing means something
and that it has worth.
We realized though we were only hitting a small number of students
and the ones that came in the door so we had many volunteers
that wanted to do more so we were approached by teachers
that wanted help with their writing assignments, a book report,
an oral history project and our in schools projects were born
so we bring in volunteers which helps lower the student
to teacher ratio and we're there to help the teacher,
not to tell them what to do.
We're there to act as a resource and we also began working with teachers
who wanted to do stronger and more substantive writing projects using
the student's own voice and so the Young Author's Book Project
was born.
So we collaborate with the class and bring in guest authors
who will write the foreword and work with the students
as they refine their stories and edit the book.
Some of our guest authors have been Amy Tan,
Colette Hussaini [assumed spelling], Isabel Allende, Steve Carrell
and Robin Williams just to name a few.
And they give their support to the student publications
by writing the foreword and helping edit so this video is of one
of our book projects at Mission High School several years ago
with teacher Perrett McCamey [assumed spelling].
[ Background noise ]
>> For a lot of students, I notice
that they have begun taking themselves more seriously
as writers.
[ Music ]
>> The Young Authors Book Project theory started
out with a book written by students
at Leadership High School in San Francisco.
[ Music ]
They wrote stories about what they wish their teachers knew.
[ Music ]
The project was important because it turned
out that it was the only book published
from a student's perspective about education in the classroom.
The student's book was eventually bought by schools of education
to give teachers in training a better understanding
on the student's perspective.
After that, 826 went on to publish one large scale book each year
with a specific group of students on an important topic.
These books have become a cornerstone of each
of the 826 chapters around the country.
This project is focused upon the golden rule, the moral code
which states do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
>> I never even heard of that rule before.
>> 826 Valencia partnered with Perett McCamey's 11th
and 12th graders at Mission High School to create a collection
of essays entitled Show of Hands,
Young Authors Reflect on the Golden Rule.
54 Mission High Students worked with tutors from September
through December 2008 as they wrote, edited and designed the book.
>> When student work with people one on one
on their writing, the benefit is so great.
On the one hand, there's the writing benefit to someone who's there
and able to read and listen to their writing and give authentic,
real feedback, lots of feedback often.
[ Inaudible ]
>> In the end?
>> Yeah.
>> That would be a great ending.
I think that would be a -- I mean a really good conclusion,
you know, you're looking at --
>> It helps students to begin to recognize the relationship
between their writing and communication to other people.
That writing actually has the power to do that
and then the other thing I think has nothing to do with writing
and it has to do about idea, just the idea of sharing and how it is
when the intellectual community is larger and not just the teacher
because I think sometimes the teacher and student can create a --
something that seems a little [inaudible] sometimes,
the ideas can get too trapped in this little bubble so it's great
to have that [inaudible].
>> Did you feel the heat outside?
>> No, you got the air conditioner on.
>> So when it opens --
>> I think the students feel less comfortable working
with outside people and so they have to do some self-struggle
and overcome barriers to figure out how to communicate their ideas
to someone they'll assume is sympathetic but yet it's good
for them, very powerful and good for them.
>> Those are really very connected.
You don't need a period to [inaudible].
[ Background noise ]
No, but you still need some punctuation, what would you use?
Yeah, semicolon.
>> I watch them look at the computer screen
and I see how engaged they are
and I can see their mind working, clicking away.
I can also see it by the kinds of questions they ask so they ask
if you were -- just tell me that I'm doing all right questions
because they become their own sort of cheerleaders
and more technical questions about the writing itself.
>> What has been your favorite part of this [inaudible].
>> Just working with all the tutors and getting all the help I can;
getting to know everybody.
It's good, never had that much help before.
>> I want to welcome you to our 2009 Young Authors Book Project release
party for show of hands Young Authors Reflect on the Golden Rule.
[ Applause ]
>> I'm expecting the students to feel more --
to have a greater relationship with their own writing and so
to have a change in confidence, a change in willingness.
>> Oh, my favorite part is expressing my thoughts
and writing it down instead of saying it.
>> To me, writing is so connected to thinking so all the changes
with their writing also mean a change
about the way they think about their thinking.
[ Silence ]
>> So these books, in fact all of our student publications are sources
of pride for our students.
The books are designed
by professional designers and beautifully bound.
The students become published authors and are able
to give those books to families and friends.
They can use the fact that they are authors
on college transcripts and resumes.
It becomes a permanent testament to their success and these are some
of the publications we've done over the last year, last couple of years.
The books are sold in all of our centers and on our website
so if you would like to purchase one of the books, please;
always got to make a pitch for the students, right?
We know our approach works through our evaluation with students,
teachers, parents and volunteers.
The fact that our students come back year after year doesn't hurt either.
We have seen many of our students grow up over the years
into confident women and men and I wanted to highlight two
of our students alumni who are great examples of the power of writing
to change lives so Edwin Gonzalez is a --
now a senior at [inaudible] University
and he first encountered 826 Boston
as a junior high student at English High School.
While he was working on one of the book publications,
his cousin was shot and killed.
He became the first 826 student to ever come in and become a tutor
to help out the younger students and model behavior for writing for --
at 826 Boston and he received a scholarship from 826 Boston
and several others and is now entering his senior year majoring
sociology at [inaudible] University.
And as Edwin says, each of us has experienced rigorous change in his
or her personal life; we are warriors
who will pass [inaudible] fight
to surpass the low expectations society has set for us.
And then Rashonda Williams [assumed spelling] 826 DC's own,
in native [inaudible] DC, graduated
from Duke Ellington High School for the Arts.
She became the first writer and I heard a whoo, good;
she became the first writer in residence at DC and as you see,
she was our -- one of our guests of honor
at our 826 DC benefit last year with Dr. Jill Biden
and she says I'm doing things I've only dreamed about from the workshop
to the White House to the book festival to last night.
826 DC has really helped me become a better writer and a better person.
So the future that we see is that every student, regardless of race,
ethnicity, circumstance or finance has the ability to write,
to express themselves and speak for themselves.
The ability to write is fundamental to our student's future success
and will ensure that they achieve their goals
and become engaged members of their community.
So in addition to this recognition
and further validation this prestigious honor gives us it will
help us as we work with more students in the cities we're already
in and take the 826 National model to scale.
We have several organizations interested in adopting the model
in their cities, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Austin,
Texas and Atlanta, to name just a few.
We're also excited about the adoption
of 826 National model internationally in Australia,
the UK, Sweden, Italy, Finland, France, and there are several others
and they actually just met two weeks ago to talk.
So we're excited that this will help us reach more students
and engage more volunteers and if you are interested in volunteering
at an 826 near you, please check out our website or just walk
into a store 'cause you always need -- I don't know, an eye patch
or mammoth milk or something.
So thank you again to the Library of Congress for this prestigious honor.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.