A Great First Event...

A big thank you to everyone that came out to Libations for Literacy on Tuesday night at Cleveland Park Bar & Grill. On a rainy night, we had almost 75 guests and raised over $1,500. I am grateful to all those that attended and to those that donated even if they weren't able to attend. In addition to all of you, several others made the event a success. First, Cleveland Park Bar & Grill made the whole event possible through generously donating the space for the event. Additionally, we were able to give away door prizes to four lucky attendees. We received generous donations from three different sources: Meredith Miller provided a $50 gift card to J.Crew, Owen Biddle provided two pairs of tickets to see The Roots, and Weygandt Wines provided a $50 gift certificate. The lucky winners are listed below:

• Lisa Marcus won the $50 gift certificate to Weygandt Wines.
• Kim Daulton won two tickets to see The Roots at the 9:30 Club on December 29th.
• Josh Friedman won two tickets to see The Roots at the 9:30 Club on December 30th.
• Martin Ditto won a $50 gift card to J.Crew.

We are hugely appreciative to all the donors that provided these door prizes and were pleased to award them to attendees of Tuesday's event.

The Reach family continues to grow as we move closer to program launch in the fall of 2010. Obviously, I can't do this all alone, so it's exciting to continue meeting people that will help Reach become reality. With each day, I learn more about literacy, and I become more confident in the organization's ability to provide a new opportunity for teens that have experienced previous failure. Inaction is not an option, and Reach, Inc. will facilitate the capacity and the motivation necessary to dramatically improve reading outcomes across ages. On Tuesday night, when I looked up and saw a room full of people supporting this new organization, I felt, once again, that we're well on our way.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Founder and President  - Reach, Inc.