Can you feel it?! Sparks are flying here at LitWorld, and we hope you feel the electric energy too. Today officially marks 100 Days until World Read Aloud Day® (WRAD), our biggest celebration of the year.
Mark your calendars for February 5th, 2024, and get ready to join us for a full day of magic as we celebrate the joy of reading aloud.
Dear LitWorld Friend,
In 2011, the United Nations declared October 11th as the International Day of the Girl, a day dedicated to recognizing the rights of girls. Since then, LitWorld has celebrated this day, rallying our global community to join our "Stand Up for Girls" campaign, where we advocate for every girl's right to share her story and transform the world.
The LitWorld community has proudly celebrated the International Day of the Girl for the past 13 years, and this year was no different.
Our global partners commemorated this day by putting together special activities to empower girls in their local communities, and we couldn’t be prouder to stand united in this mission alongside them.
Thanks to your support, we can continue to Stand Up for Girls not just on October 11th, but every single day.
Scroll down to see a recap of how our partners celebrated!
Dear LitWorld Friend,
Greetings from our headquarters in New York City! From where we are, the leaves are beginning to take on the warm hues of autumn, ushering in the new season. It's a wonderful time to renew our energy as we prepare for the last quarter of the year.
As the season turns, we find it fitting to welcome new changes to our team. We’re grateful to every community member who has contributed to the past, present and future of LitWorld, and we look forward to this next stage of growth.
Read on to learn how our LitWorld team is evolving.
The LitWorld team is thrilled to officially announce our new Executive Director, Caitlin Cassaro.
Caitlin Cassaro
Caitlin joins LitWorld following an impressive ten years as the Executive Director of Extreme Kids & Crew, an organization dedicated to providing play and arts programing, as well as social-emotional learning and family support, to young people with disabilities. Before Extreme Kids, she served as CFO for Friends of Firefighters, a nonprofit mental health and wellness organization founded in response to the 9/11 attacks, and co-founded the Red Hook Playgroup, a nonprofit progressive community-based preschool. Caitlin is also a dual masters’ (MBA and MSW) recipient.
Caitlin believes deeply that service is successful only when done in collaboration with the people and communities being served. She takes great pride in leading nonprofits with transparency, business acumen, and empathy. She is incredibly honored and excited to step into the role of new Executive Director for LitWorld, an organization that encompasses the values she holds dear, and to partner with the staff and board to drive the mission forward.
“I deeply connect to LitWorld’s mission and appreciate how our community-based programming comes to life through collaboration and respect. To be literate is to be able to read the world around us—to be able to tell our story— and I am honored to be part of the team and to deepen and expand this valuable work.”
Dear Friends,
Yesterday morning, I sat down at the kitchen table with my daughter to make maps of the feelings in our hearts. (It was the time of day when she is usually starting school, and I am usually on the subway on my way to work.)
The first two feelings she shared were “sad” and “happy,” which sums things up pretty well. We are all experiencing so many conflicting emotions right now, and they can shift in an instant. It felt good to write down the feelings of that moment. It feels good to share them with you all now.
Today, I invite you to join in and come together as the kind, resilient, generous LitWorld community we know and love. I invite you to share your hearts with the world! Visit here to learn how you can make your own Heart Map and add to our story.
In these days when we need to stay physically distanced to be safe, it is more critical than ever to build social connections with others so that we can stay emotionally strong. The act of sharing stories keeps us whole, and reminds us that we are part of a global community. LitWorld is doing all we can to keep this work going strong. Let’s be there for one another, today and every day!
Please feel free to be in touch at any time, and thank you, always, for being an important part of the LitWorld family!
With hope,
Dorothy Lee
Executive Director, LitWorld
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