By Valory Schoenecker
Murphy News Service
Fundraiser scheduled during ‘I Love to Read Month’
The Seven Dreams Education Foundation will host its second-annual Bird Bash fundraiser, Saturday, Feb. 21, to support education throughout the Robbinsdale area school district.
With a goal of raising more than $35,000, this year’s event proceeds will go to a program called Engineering is Elementary. It brings in a Science Museum of Minnesota staff member to help engage fifth-graders in learning about engineering and problem- solving. From the money earned at this year’s Bird Bash, the foundation hopes to expand the program’s outreach to fourth-graders in the Robbinsdale school district.
In the past, donations to the foundation have gone to collecting and repairing instruments for students, funding the orchestra concert series for third-graders and education grants to staff members. Last year’s Bird Bash event raised around $27,000 and around 280 people were in attendance.
“I think it’s important to support the community you live in whether you have kids in it or not,” Robin Chambers, a member of the planning committee, said. “To support kids in the Robbinsdale area schools is to support future leadership.”
A large part of the 2015 Bird Bash event will be the silent and live auctions where members of the community can bid on items, many of them relating to the work of Minnesota authors.
Julie Kramer’s creatively packaged mystery novels that will be auctioned off at the event. (Submitted photo)
Local authors will donate signed copies of their work and two of the authors will even donate a live book club experience. Bridget Hoolihan Budig and William Kent Kruger are donating 90 minutes of their time to initiate questions and lead conversation during a book club hosted by the winning bidder.
Budig, author of “My World is Over,” a novel written from an 8th grader’s point of view, said that with the digital world we live in today, many people are turned off from reading at an early age.
“As we move into this technological age, we do need to keep up some of those basic reading skills. Not just reading online,” Budig said. “If you can get those books into student’s hands, that’s the target audience.”
Budig’s novel is fast-paced and geared toward entertaining young adults who have been turned off by reading. She stresses that reading is an important way to learn. There’s only so much a student can gain from lectures, eventually they have to pick up a book and learn on their own terms.
The Seven Dreams Education Foundation is an independent nonprofit education foundation created by Robbinsdale community members, parents and education professionals.
The “Seven” in its name stands for the seven communities in the school district including: Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Crystal, Golden Valley, New Hope, Plymouth and Robbinsdale.
Contributing authors to the 2015 Bird Bash event:
William Kent Kruger – NY Times best selling author
Kate DiCamillo – Children’s author who is a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Julie Kramer – Minnesota award winning mystery author
Bridget Hoolihan Budig – New young adult author
David Breeden – Accomplished poet
John Coy – Picture book and young adult author
Mary Logue – Mystery author and poet
Glenn Ickler – Mystery author
Louise Erdrich – National Book Award Winner 2012
Barbara Keith – Mosaic book author
David LaRochelle – Children’s book author
Amanda Paa – Culinary author
If you go
What: The Seven Dreams Education Foundation’s second annual Bird Bash fundraiser
When: 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21
Where: Minneapolis Marriott Northwest, 7025 Northland Drive North, Brooklyn Park, MN 55428
Tickets: Individual tickets are $50, groups of 10 can purchase a table for $450
Info: sevendreamsfoundation.org/bird_bash.html
Valory Schoenecker is an intern studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.