Farmworkers Self-Help

Farmworkers' Children get Treat of Literacy, Tour of Bookstore
By Meghan Hussey | Tampa Bay Online
July 30, 2009

Bob Loring, executive director of Toys for Tots of East Pasco, reads a book to a group of Farmworkers Self Help children at Barnes & Noble Wednesday.

WESLEY CHAPEL - Thirty-seven children served by Farmworkers Self-Help in Dade City paid a visit to Barnes and Noble at the Shops at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel on Wednesday. And, for many, it marked their first literacy experience.

"Some of these kids have never been to a bookstore," said Margarita Roma, executive director of Farmworkers Self-Help. "We want to give them the opportunity to see this, to tell them they can make use of a bookstore like this."

The children, in grades kindergarten through middle school, received books, toys and flash cards from Barnes and Noble, items accumulated through a community school supply drive; as well as bookmarks from the San Antonio Rotary Club, which co-hosted the event.

"We want to be a resource and asset for the community," said Cynthia Mason-Plesner, community relations manager at Barnes and Noble at the Shops of Wiregrass. "We want to put books into students' hands."

This event, Mason-Plesner explained, was an offshoot of a June literacy conference at Barnes and Noble also co-hosted by San Antonio Rotary and Bob Loring, director of Toys for Tots East Pasco.

Loring also helped organize the event, at which he entertained the children with a reading of "Ferdinand the Bull."

Friday, the same students will tour the Dade City Business Center, a former juice plant. They'll be served lunch and each child will be presented a back-to-school backpack loaded with all the tools they will need for the coming school year. The nonprofit organization Projects of Pasco Inc. provided the supplies and backpacks.

"Today I want to celebrate the idea that learning to read is important," Loring told the kids Wednesday. "Through reading you get a good education. By getting a good education, you can be anything you want."

Some of the children jumped up and stepped forward to study the illustrations in the "Ferdinand" book and the praise of "cool" and "wow" could be heard.

Patti Blobmke, a bookseller at Barnes and Noble, entertained the children with a reading of "Marley Goes to School," at one point encouraging them to bark along with her, ala Marley, the canine hero of the story.

Then Angela Hutchinson, children's leader at Barnes and Noble, took the kids on a tour of the bookstore, explaining along the way common literary terms such as fiction, nonfiction, reference section, and dictionary, and quizzing students on their knowledge.

"What is an autobiography?" she asked.

"It's a book you write about yourself," explained Leonardo Salgado, 8.

Dalia Morales, 5, exclaimed, "This is making me hungry!" when faced with a shelf of cookbooks. And 4-year-old Christopher Manriquez flashed a spirited thumbs-up sign at Barnes and Noble music seller
Garrett Mull, as he tried on a set of headphones during a demonstration of the store's music sampling system.

The children received their bookmarks from San Antonio Rotary representative Dolores Riego de Dios, who told them, "We want you to remember this day."

Indeed, making reading memorable was the primary objective of Wednesday's bookstore event.

"We want to create motivation to take reading seriously," said Loring. "Literacy leads to success. Success leads to fulfilling your dreams."