All posts by Beth Wallace

White River says hello to Daryl Seitchik

Daryl Seitchik is the new Everybody Wins! coordinator at White River School in Hartford. We couldn’t be happier to welcome Daryl to our Upper Valley team!

Daryl is a cartoonist and teacher, as well as the  site coordinator for Everybody Wins! White River School. Daryl graduated from Barnard College in 2012, and received an MFA in cartooning from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2018. She has taught comics workshops for children, teens, and adults at schools, libraries, and museums all throughout New England, and loves to spread the word that reading can be empowering and fun. She is the author of “How We Read: A Graphic Guide to Literacy,” a comic book about how our brains learn to read and why it can be a struggle to learn. See more of Daryl’s work at her website: www.darylseitchik.com.

Welcome to Everybody Wins!

Haley Cameron, welcome to Northfield Everybody Wins!

Northfield Everybody Wins! has a new coordinator! Welcome to Haley Cameron.

Haley began coordinating the Northfield Everybody Wins! program before winter break. It’s been wonderful to see the mentors come back to connect with children again in the Northfield Elementary School library.

Haley grew up in the Mad River Valley and now lives in Northfield with her husband, ten month old son, cats, and dog. She has been a bookworm from a young age and loves sharing the joy of books with her family. She has her Bachelor’s in English Literature from Concordia University in Montreal and loves travelling back to Canada whenever possible. She is thrilled to work with Everybody Wins! Vermont to spread the love of reading!

Everybody Wins! is just as thrilled to have Haley on our team. Welcome aboard, Haley!

Welcome to Hinesburg Community School, and Janet Gray!

There’s a new Everybody Wins! program this year, at Hinesburg Community School—and Janet Gray is joining the Everybody Wins! team to make it happen!

Janet has a Masters Degree in Information Science from The University of Texas at Austin and has been both a classroom teacher and public school librarian. After a few years home with her family, Janet is excited to get back to connecting children with literature. Janet and her family recently relocated to South Burlington from Colorado, and she enjoys time exploring Vermont, spending time with family, hiking, reading, embroidery, and baking.

Hinesburg Community School applied to host an Everybody Wins! Vermont program in the last round of school applications, in 2023. We are delighted to have Hinesburg on board and to work with CY Mentoring there as we do at the Shelburne Community School.

Reading in Hinesburg will take place on Tuesday and Thursday at lunchtime and will start in early December. To reach Janet and learn more about the Hinesburg program, click here. To apply to be a mentor in Hinesburg, click here.

Waterbury Welcomes Jeannie Randall

Everybody Wins! at Brookside School in Waterbury has a new coordinator: Jeannie Randall. We are so excited to welcome her to the team!

Jeannie is a mother, volunteers as a  girl scout leader, and has been a child care provider and a lunch lady.  She loves to share books with children, and especially reading with her child at bedtime. She has two bookshelves full of children’s books at her home and donated many to the lunchroom when she was in food service. Jeannie lives in Moretown with her husband and daughter (who is a bookworm) along with her cat Kava and three fish.  She enjoys going for walks, swimming, cross country skiing, gardening, and studying nutrition.

Thank you for a great Race to the Top!

Thank you for a great Race to the Top!

Thanks to your generosity, we raised over $15,000 for children and reading!
Thanks to The Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, $5000 of that will be DOUBLED to support programs in the Upper Connecticut River Valley!

It’s not too late! Click here to donate now and help us bring reading to more children in VT and NH schools this year!

Thank you to our hosts, the Catamount Trail Association! See you on Mansfield next year!

Hello to Eleanor Perry!

Eleanor Perry is the new assistant coordinator in Everybody Wins! St. Johnsbury. Eleanor has been a mentor in the St. Johnsbury Everybody Wins! for 2 years. She lives in Danville with her husband John, also a St. J mentor.

Eleanor says, “One of my earliest memories took place when I was 5 or 6 years old – long before anyone thought of Pre-K programs. I was the youngest of four children, and my mom thought Iwas too young to go to the library with my siblings. My brother was charged with taking out a library book I would enjoy. When my sibs came home I heard that my brother was insulted because the book the librarian recommended was “for babies!”

Everybody Wins! is a program that assumes, as my brother did, that every child should be given the opportunity to learn to love reading. That’s why I wanted to be part of this program.”

Welcome, welcome, Eleanor! We’re so happy to have you on the team.

 

Katie Comes Back!

Katie Wiseman has been with Everybody Wins! for 10 years—fun fact, she was the first person hired by the then-brand-new director Beth Wallace. Now she’s coming back to her roots as the coordinator of our new program at Hinesburg Community School. Everybody Wins! is the luckiest!

Katie has worked for Everybody Wins! since 2014, originally as a site coordinator at J.J. Flynn Elementary and The Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes in Burlington. Since 2016, Katie has processed all mentor applications as the administrative coordinator. A woman of many skills, Katie also compiles our annual survey results and creates the survey reports for each school. Katie was first introduced to mentoring with the DREAM Program as a student at Champlain College and went on to work for the DREAM Program through AmeriCorps. She is known in Everybody Wins! for her cheerful can-do attitude. Katie lives in South Burlington with her family, where they love to read aloud and visit bookstores and libraries.

A Big Hello to Michelle Keefler!

Everybody Wins! is thrilled to welcome Michelle Keefler as the new site coordinator for Edmunds Elementary School and J.J. Flynn Elementary School in Burlington.

Born and raised in Montréal, Québec, Michelle has lived in Vermont since 2012. She comes to Everybody Wins! Vermont after more than a decade of volunteering in schools from one coast to the other. Her common goal is to support all students in experiencing meaningful connections and unconditional acceptance. A former mentor and South Burlington Mentoring program coordinator, Michelle has a passion for mentoring, writing, and storytelling in all its forms. She is a current graduate student at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. Michelle lives in South Burlington with her family of four, and loves to do anything outdoors, especially if it involves friends, family, cycling, gardening or birds!

You can email Michelle about Edmunds Elementary here, and about Flynn Elementary here.

Welcome Kelly Bouteiller!

Everybody Wins! Vermont has a new program manager for the west side of the state. Introducing Kelly Bouteiller!

As the former Executive Director of Charlotte Children’s Center, literacy instructional coach at Charlotte Central School, and elementary classroom teacher, Kelly Bouteiller has had the privilege to build community and joy around literacy with both children and adults for many years. Kelly has loved reading since she was a child and has a particular passion for the power of children’s literature. She has also discovered a love of crochet, and can often be found crocheting while listening to an audiobook. Kelly lives in Charlotte with her husband, their two young boys, and cats Jack and Annie—named for the characters in the Magic Tree House Series!

Kelly will support Everybody Wins! coordinators in community schools in Chittenden, Addison, and Rutland counties. We are so happy to have her on board! You can email Kelly here.

 

July 2023 Flooding at Everybody Wins!

An industrial brick building surrounded by brown flood water.
The Everybody Wins! office on the morning of July 11 2023.
A pile of flood-damaged furniture, equipment, supplies, and materials by the curb.
The staff member who took this photo captioned it “The Everybody Wins! office on the curb.”
An empty office with drywall cut 14 inches from the floor showing the studs and flood debris & silt on the floor.
The office on July 21.

Like all of downtown Montpelier, Everybody Wins! flooded on July 10-11, 2023. The last photo shows the current state of our workspace. Wet drywall has been cut away; the floor is still covered in flood debris; carpet, cubicles, and much of our furniture, equipment, and supplies were damaged and discarded. We did manage to save about 2/3 of our books!

This is the nerve center of Everybody Wins!, the place that makes the magic happen all across the state for children. We will keep going, but right now, we could really use your help. Could you consider a donation to Everybody Wins! to help us continue to recover?

Thank you for your support! Together, we will keep kids reading—no matter what.