Second Story meets its match
Monday, April 06, 2009
Thanks to a successful Underground fundraiser and other generous support from the community, The Second Story was able to meet its three-month fundraising goal to receive a $10,000 match from The Indianapolis Foundation, a Central Indiana Community Foundation affiliate. This is a portion of the $25,000 grant Second Story received from The Indianapolis Foundation in November of 2008.
Hot Baked Cheetos — coming soon!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Hot off the presses! The Second Story, a nonprofit organization created to inspire and encourage young writers, has published Hot Baked Cheetos and Other Things We Like About Indianapolis, a book of short stories about the city written by fourth-graders at IPS School 15 on the Near Eastside. Students wrote about their local favorites like The Indianapolis Zoo, the Indiana State Fair, Garfield Park, Irish Fest and neighborhood stores selling snacks like hot Cheetos.
On Feb. 23, students will read their work, sign books and celebrate the end of a five-month project that brought volunteer professional writers, educators and college students from Butler, University of Indianapolis and IUPUI into the school each week. Family members, volunteers, Second Story board members, school administrators and other key supporters will also attend the celebration.
AuthorHouse, the Bloomington-based provider of self-publishing and marketing services, sponsored the book by providing free copies for the students and volunteers — as well as other publishing assistance. The project was also supported by grants form The Indianapolis Foundation, a Central Indiana Community Foundation affiliate, and State Farm.
Hot Baked Cheetos, which sells for $13.50, is available in local bookstores and can be ordered online at
authorhouse.com or
amazon.com. Proceeds from the sale of the books go to support this and future student-publishing projects.
The book project caps the first in-school program for The Second Story, which will continue its efforts at other IPS locations this spring — while also providing after-school creative writing programming in partnership with the Kaleidoscope Youth Center at 42nd and Broadway and the Lilly Boys & Girls Club in Fountain Square.
What: Young author celebration, reading and book signing
When: 2 p.m., Feb. 23
Where: IPS School 15, 2302 E. Michigan St.
Check out our Podcast with John Green
Monday, January 26, 2009
Our first Second Story podcast — featuring young adult fiction author John Green interviewed by Ken Honeywell and Scott Woolgar can be heard
right here. Listen. It's fun.
What the kids are saying…
Monday, December 08, 2008
We took some quick testimonials from the fourth graders we've been working with this fall/winter every Friday morning at School 15. Here's what they told us when asked how they felt about The Second Story program:
Kayla:
"I like writing better now. The biggest thing I like about it is we can talk about the past, future, dreams and make stories with it. You can get ideas and it helps put a story together. Because we don’t have to worry about making every thing correctly, I write more."
Francisco:
“I like it because we write and our stories are going to be in a book. My family can get the book and see the story that I made. That makes me happy. Maybe I’ll get a present from them for the work that I did.”
Jason:
“I think it’s really fun that we do writing. Because we write and sometimes play a little too. You guys let us have fun and then we go to work. I like that we wrote about what we wanted to write about.”
Miguel:
“It’s a good program because we’re writing about stuff and that helps us think. Like if I write about NASA, I start thinking about it and learning more about it. I’ve started learning more and more. I’m a better writer and I’m better about thinking about things like NASA.”
Tréone:
“I like it because I get to write a lot. I like fixing the rough draft and making it into a story.”
Luis:
“It’s fun. Making a book with people in my class is fun.”
Isaac:
“I think you all (the volunteers) save us when you take us out of class. You help us do things that our teacher can’t get done by herself.”
We're off to a great start and are really making a difference in these kids' lives. Thanks to our Friday volunteers and our board members!
