June 26, 2020
Page Ahead's summer wrap-up
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Page Ahead volunteers are vital to our ability to reach over 30,000 young readers all across the state. We are so grateful for their help in putting brand new books in the hands of kids who need them most. Volunteers make our programs possible in countless ways: sorting, shelving, and stickering books; maintaining and restocking our Book Oasis libraries; reading with children during Story Time; serving on our committees and Board of Directors; helping kids choose books at Book Up Summer book fairs—and so much more!
This year, over 500 volunteers gave more than 3,565 hours to ensure EVERY child has the chance to read. We are profoundly thankful to each and every one of them. Thank you, volunteers—you make the magic happen!
And, an extra-special thank you to the winners of the 2025 Sarajane Beal Award for Volunteer Excellence, Nance Daiker and Linda Hintz!
Nance and Linda began volunteering for Page Ahead in July of 2021 as weekly office volunteers in the Story Time craft center. In preparation for the return of in-person Story Times for the 2021 school year, Nance and Linda quickly began creating new craft kits. They reorganized all the resources for Story Time crafts and over the last 4 years have transformed the craft replenishment process to be much more streamlined and efficient.
This past year has been extra special: Nance and Linda have put in a combined total of over 375 volunteer hours! This is especially impressive considering that Linda was out for a few months recovering from surgery. But, that never slowed them down from replenishing over 440 Story Time craft kits and assembling over 500 craft kits for summer story times at Ballard and High Point. These craft kit totals translate into support for over 1,400 students in our Story Time program. Nance and Linda also delivered over 700 books to their 2 Book Oases this past year, keeping the neighborhoods near Olympic Hills Elementary School and ReWA in Lake City supplied with high-quality children’s books. These two are an amazing team!
Linda and Nance’s passion for Page Ahead, and their many hours of service to all of our programs, help us bring books and the joy of reading to countless schools and children.
Thank you, Nance and Linda! You truly make a difference at Page Ahead!
On Tuesday, August 26, while the Mariners played against the San Diego Padres, Mariners Care and PACCAR hosted a book drive to benefit Page Ahead at T-Mobile Park.
Thank you to our volunteers who helped us at the game! Their passion for literacy was the real MVP, helping us smash our Mariners Book Drive record. With their support, we will be able to give away over 1,100 new books to kids who need them most!
During the 2024 – 25 program year, Page Ahead:
We extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who was a part of this journey—it takes many people to make this work possible.
We are starting a new committee! Our Social Media/Marketing committee will focus on building strategy, generating content, and discussing metrics/impact. With an increasing need to grow our social media presence, we have decided that the most effective way to expand Page Ahead’s social media presence is to create a committee of dedicated volunteers to help us shine and beat the algorithm.
Meetings will begin in the fall and will take place monthly from 6pm – 7pm. Meeting dates are still TBD and will be dependent on the interest and availability of interested community members.
Roles available are:
Each role is anticipated to have about 2-4 hours of work outside of the monthly meetings!
If you’re interested in joining or learning more, please contact Laura.
Kim Ferse has been a Page Ahead volunteer since 2017. Her volunteer tenure has spanned many projects. She was an instrumental part of the Book Oasis project through her work with vendors, hosts, and community members. She also works as a summer story time reader and is working on a project to create labels for guiding questions for each of our Story Time books. In her free time, Kim is a playwright and an avid tennis player.
Here’s what she has to say about the books she is reading: “My 2025 summer reading list is a story of apples and oranges! I am currently reading two books: First is Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, which I picked up after hearing an NPR interview with the author. I didn’t know anything about the history of the IRA, and I love true stories that read like fiction! The other book I’m reading right now is The Losers Club by Andrew Clements. I am co-reading this middle-grade chapter book aloud over Zoom a half-hour at a time over the summer with Saryn, a 9-year-old girl from New Jersey, as part of a program called “ARK” (Actors Reading with Kids). We’re taking turns reading pages, and it’s silly fun!”
June 26, 2020
Page Ahead distributed our four-millionth book at Concord International Elementary in West Seattle!
June 3, 2022
It's great way for companies or groups to give back.
October 10, 2022