literacy – San Antonio Nerd Night

International Tabletop Day

We will be partnering with GaMExpo to celebrate International Tabletop Day! ITTD is an international celebrations of all things tabletop created by the crew at Geek and Sundry. We will be hosting an ITTD event at Wonderland of the Americas on Saturday April 28, 2018 from 10 am – 6 pm.

In addition to collecting book donations for San Antonio Youth Literacy, our event will also be celebrating indie tabletop developers who will be bringing out their newest games for you to playtest and the Central Texas Werewolves will be trying to find those elusive werewolves! Come out and get your game on!

San Antonio Youth Literacy Book Buddies need all sorts of new and gently used books for children in grades K-5. If you’re having trouble thinking of a book, here’s an idea list for you: https://smile.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1WZZHJYQ11YRJ?&sort=price-asc

Hint! Shop at smile.amazon.com and set your selected charity to San Antonio Nerd Night. We will receive a tiny donation at no cost to you every time you shop!

International Tabletop DayStephanie2018-04-03T08:15:52-06:00

International Tabletop Day

We will be partnering with GaMExpo to celebrate International Tabletop Day! ITTD is an international celebrations of all things tabletop created by the crew at Geek and Sundry. We will be hosting an ITTD event at Wonderland of the Americas on Saturday April 28, 2018 from 10 am – 6 pm.

In addition to collecting book donations for San Antonio Youth Literacy, our event will also be celebrating indie tabletop developers who will be bringing out their newest games for you to playtest and the Central Texas Werewolves will be trying to find those elusive werewolves! Come out and get your game on!

San Antonio Youth Literacy Book Buddies needs all sorts of new and gently used books for children in grades K-5. If you’re having trouble thinking of a book, here’s an idea list for you: https://smile.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1WZZHJYQ11YRJ?&sort=price-asc

Hint! Shop at smile.amazon.com and set your selected charity to San Antonio Nerd Night. We will receive a tiny donation at no cost to you every time you shop!

International Tabletop DayStephanie2018-04-03T08:12:21-06:00

Nerd Night @ Knight Watch Games Benefiting Book Buddies

Join us from 2pm-10pm for a full day of board gaming in support of Book Buddies. Nerd Night is holding a book drive to collect books for this year’s fairs. We will have Knight Watch’s library at our disposal, or bring your own games to play while you make new gaming buddies. Bring a book to donate, stay and play games all day!

Book Idea List HERE. You can donate any kids book appropriate for K-5th Grade: https://smile.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1WZZHJYQ11YRJ?&sort=price-asc

(Hint: Shop at smile.amazon.com and select San Antonio Nerd Night as your charity! We receive a tiny donation at no cost to you with every purchase.)

Book Buddies is an initiative of San Antonio Youth Literacy. Book Buddies collects books suitable for kids in kindergarten through 5th grade and distributes them at the end of the school year in free book fairs at their Reading Buddy Schools.

At these book fairs, children choose books to take home to read over the summer, which helps prevent the “summer slide” — a regression in learning over summer vacation when they are not being actively taught. Studies also show that children who grow up in homes without books, and who are not read to as children, are far more likely to fall behind in school, fail to complete high school, and suffer the unfortunate outcomes associated with failure: drug use, criminal behavior, early pregnancy, etc.

San Antonio Youth Literacy developed Book Buddies as an offshoot of their Reading Buddy program, which exists in San Antonio Title 1 schools where at least 75% of the families are below the poverty line. Children at these schools attend the free book fairs at the end of the school year and take the books home and keep them as their own. They can read them over the summer, share them with family and friends, or even their parents. In many cases these donated books are the only books in the home. An added benefit is that children in more advantaged homes learn to share their no longer needed books with another child. Everybody wins!

Nerd Night @ Knight Watch Games Benefiting Book BuddiesStephanie2018-04-03T07:54:36-06:00

Nerd Night @ Geekdom Benefiting Book Buddies

Join us on April 13th from 7pm-midnight for a night of board gaming in support of Book Buddies. Nerd Night is holding a book drive to collect books for this year’s fairs. Bring your new or gently used children’s books to the Geekdom Event Centre. We will have our game library to share or bring your own games to play while you make new gaming buddies.

Book Idea List HERE: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1WZZHJYQ11YRJ?&sort=price-asc

Book Buddies is an initiative of San Antonio Youth Literacy. Book Buddies collects books suitable for kids in kindergarten through 5th grade and distributes them at the end of the school year in free book fairs at their Reading Buddy Schools.

Children choose books to take home to read over the summer, which helps prevent the “summer slide” — a regression in learning over summer vacation when they are not being actively taught. Studies also show that children who grow up in homes without books, and who are not read to as children, are far more likely to fall behind in school, fail to complete high school, and suffer the unfortunate outcomes associated with failure: drug use, criminal behavior, early pregnancy, etc.

San Antonio Youth Literacy developed Book Buddies as an offshoot of their Reading Buddy program, which exists in San Antonio Title 1 schools where at least 75% of the families are below the poverty line. Children at these schools attend the free book fairs at the end of the school year and take the books home and keep them as their own. They can read them over the summer, share them with family and friends, or even their parents. In many cases these donated books are the only books in the home. An added benefit is that children in more advantaged homes learn to share their no longer needed books with another child. Everybody wins!

Nerd Night @ Geekdom Benefiting Book BuddiesStephanie2018-04-03T07:43:03-06:00

The Big Give 2017

May the Fourth Be With You!

The Big Give S.A. is all day today, May 4. For those who may not be familiar, The Big Give S.A. is a 24-hour day of giving. It’s organized by the Texas Nonprofit Council and the San Antonio Area Foundation, with the support of the New Braunfels Community Center and the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country.

Since 2014, 101,000 donors have given nearly $11 million dollars to over 1,600 nonprofits through the Big Give-making it one of the most successful giving days in the country.

You may remember that last year was challenging — After a series of technical failures, the national Give Local America site went down, and donors across the country had difficulty giving to the nonprofits of their choice. Our community still rallied to raise $4.3 million for 1,055 nonprofits in 2016! You are resilient and generous!

All the nonprofits we have helped in this past year or will help later this year are fundraising extra-hard today! Many are participating in special events all day. Here are their Big Give links. If a particular organization over the last year was special to you, or if one of our upcoming nonprofit partners has a special place in your heart, please give and GIVE BIG!

Elf Louise

San Antonio Food Bank

Family Violence Prevention Services

SAMMinistries

Animal Defense League

San Antonio AIDS Foundation

San Antonio Youth Literacy

Texas Burn Survivor Society

The Rape Crisis Center

Texas Diaper Bank

Alpha Home

Merced Housing Texas

SNIPSA

The Big Give 2017Stephanie2017-05-04T10:04:59-06:00

May Event for Literacy

An update on our recent event from your special guest host, Keller! (Steph had tickets to The Cure, so you can excuse her for taking a night off).

We had another great night last Friday at Geeks Cafe, raising awareness and donations for Book Buddies, an initiative of San Antonio Youth Literacy. They provide books to kids who may not otherwise have a book for the summer. We had about 40 people come for the games, and they brought over 400 books!

We also learned about the importance of children’s literacy from the Book Buddies volunteer Kathy McPherson. She shared some stats about how important literacy is, especially for elementary school kids that are the focus of their program. Reading is so important for kids to succeed in school, and many households have few, if any, books. Getting books into the hands of children is a good way to help them out.

Kathy also really had fun with the games, and we enjoyed welcoming new gamers to the event (Special thanks to Veronica for sharing Smash Up!)

We’re looking forward to our June events to benefit the Texas Burn Survivors Society’s Camp David for pediatric burn survivors.

Wait, did I say “events”? Yes, we’re having a second event in June: in addition to our regular 2nd Friday event at Geeks Cafe on June 10th at 7 PM, we’re also having an event on June 26th from 2-10 PM at Knight Watch Games! The afternoon time gives more time for games and is easier to bring the kids.

See you there!

May Event for Literacysann_admin2016-11-25T10:59:33-06:00

International Tabletop Day and Updates

Apologies for my absence from this blog lately, I started a new job and things have been super-crazy!

To start, here are some pics from International Tabletop Day. It was great to meet so many new people and see so many old friends. We collected some books ahead of tomorrow’s Nerd Night, and Kelly, Nathan and I handed out about 100 postcards to attendees. We had about 150 people at ITTD, so congrats to GaMExpo on a very successful day! The space at Wonderland of the Americas is huge, and that’s definitely something to keep in mind for future events.

Giant GaMExpo game library!

Silent auction. All proceeds to benefit San Antonio Youth Literacy!

Knight Watch Games was one of the vendors.

Childs Play

Alamo City Fleet Command

As I mentioned, tomorrow is Nerd Night. We’re hoping for a huge turnout to support Book Buddies and San Antonio Youth Literacy. Pick up a kids book (here’s a link if you need ideas) and come play games with us at Geeks Cafe from 7-midnight. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this month (*ahem* The Cure live in Austin! *ahem*), but I am leaving you all in the capable hands of Lisa, Keller and Nathan. I know it’s going to be a great night.

Lastly, our big news this month: San Antonio Nerd Night, Inc. is now a registered 501(c)(3) public charity! This means all donations are tax-deductible, among other benefits. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our fundraiser to make this happen – you can now deduct that contribution from your 2016 tax return!

International Tabletop Day and UpdatesStephanie2016-11-25T10:59:33-06:00

Charity Spotlight: Book Buddies

Book Buddies is an initiative of San Antonio Youth Literacy, an organization founded in 1984 to provide one-on-one reading assistance to elementary school children through the Reading Buddies program. They attempt to increase the number of children reading at grade level while fostering their enjoyment of reading.

SAYL is committed to reducing functional illiteracy among the youth of San Antonio and seeing that every child in South Texas enters 3rd grade reading at level. Reading Buddies provides one-to-one reading assistance to elementary children in 65 schools across San Antonio. Volunteers tutor children who struggle with basic reading and comprehension skills.

Book Buddies collects books suitable for kids in kindergarten through 5th grade and distributes them at the end of the school year in free book fairs at their Reading Buddy Schools.

Children choose books to take home to read over the summer, which helps prevent the “summer slide” — a regression in learning over summer vacation when they are not being actively taught. Studies also show that children who grow up in homes without books, and who are not read to as children, are far more likely to fall behind in school, fail to complete high school, and suffer the unfortunate outcomes associated with failure: drug use, criminal behavior, early pregnancy, etc.

The Reading Buddy program exists in San Antonio Title 1 schools where at least 75% of the families are below the poverty line. Children at these schools attend the free book fairs at the end of the school year and take the books home and keep them as their own. They can read them over the summer, share them with family and friends, or even their parents. In many cases these donated books are the only books in the home. An added benefit is that children in more advantaged homes learn to share their no longer needed books with another child.

May Nerd Night is holding a book drive to collect books for this year’s fairs. Bring your new or gently used books to Geeks Café on May 13th!

Types of Books Needed

Picture Books (Example: Where the Wild Things Are)
I Can Read series
Children’s chapter books
Any book appropriate up to a 6th grade level

Amazon Shopping Suggestions

Charity Spotlight: Book BuddiesStephanie2016-11-25T10:59:34-06:00

May Nerd Night: Book Buddies

San Antonio Nerd Night Benefiting Book Buddies

May’s partner organization is Book Buddies, an initiative of San Antonio Youth Literacy. Book Buddies collects books suitable for kids in kindergarten through 5th grade and distributes them at the end of the school year in free book fairs at their Reading Buddy Schools.

Children choose books to take home to read over the summer, which helps prevent the “summer slide” — a regression in learning over summer vacation when they are not being actively taught. Studies also show that children who grow up in homes without books, and who are not read to as children, are far more likely to fall behind in school, fail to complete high school, and suffer the unfortunate outcomes associated with failure: drug use, criminal behavior, early pregnancy, etc.

San Antonio Youth Literacy developed Book Buddies as an offshoot of their Reading Buddy program, which exists in San Antonio Title 1 schools where at least 75% of the families are below the poverty line. Children at these schools attend the free book fairs at the end of the school year and take the books home and keep them as their own. They can read them over the summer, share them with family and friends, or even their parents. In many cases these donated books are the only books in the home. An added benefit is that children in more advantaged homes learn to share their no longer needed books with another child. Everybody wins!

May Nerd Night is holding a book drive to collect books for this year’s fairs. Bring your new or gently used books to Geeks Café on May 13th!

Types of Books Needed

Picture Books (Example: Where the Wild Things Are)
I Can Read series
Children’s chapter books
Any book appropriate up to a 6th grade level

Amazon Shopping Suggestions

May Nerd Night: Book BuddiesStephanie2016-11-25T10:59:40-06:00