Kids are able to imagine a future rife with possibilities when their images are reflected on the pages of their books.

Earlier this year we raffled off a couple of multi-colored dinner plates for our friends at Word on the Street and were blown away by the incredible support of this East Fork community.  We decided to make a habit of it.  Each quarter we will raffle off a very special, rare, weird, experimental or otherwise highly covetable East Fork one-of-a-kind for $5 or so bucks a ticket.  We’ll draw a winner at random and the money goes straight into the bank accounts of a non-profit in our Western North Carolina community working to make our region healthier, more joyful, and more just. 

This quarter I am thrilled to be supporting The Colorful Pages Coalition, co-founded by my dear friend, Bianca Gragg.  Bianca and I were in birth class together back when we had our first babies!  She and her work to get books featuring characters of color and by authors of color into WNC schools. 

When you buy a $5 raffle ticket, you’re entered to win that item and your donation goes straight to Colorful Pages Coalition. 

Books featuring characters of color, Bianca explains, allow “children of color to see themselves represented consistently, regularly, and positively while white children see their peers of the global majority amplified positively as part of the norm—not part of a once year remembrance or skewed, often inaccurate history lesson.” Kids are able to imagine a future rife with possibilities when their images are reflected on the pages of their books.  Colorful Pages Coalition works with educators, families and librarians to help them select and use literature written by authors of color about characters of color for their elementary-aged children and students. They support educators in developing their awareness to call out and act on the internalized, interpersonal, and structural biases and injustices in their own classrooms and schools.  

We hope you’ll join us in supporting this awesome grassroots initiative to make our classrooms more colorful by entering to win one of these prizes!