Alpha Xi Delta

Chooses Children!

Choose Children

Choose Children isn't an organization - it's an idea. Alpha Xi Delta gives members the flexibility to look in their communities and decide how they can best benefit children. For some chapters it's raising money for a local organization; for others it's spending time tutoring children at an after-school program or working with children at a battered women's shelter.

Beginning this fall, Alpha Xi Delta’s college chapters and alumnae associations will share two exciting new components of Choose Children with youngsters in their communities. Reading Day will introduce children to books and help them start a lifelong love of reading. Chapters and alumnae associations can also team up with First Book, a national nonprofit organization that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

Reading Day

Reading Day is based on the Choose Children book project that was unveiled during Alpha Xi Delta’s 2003 National Convention. The goals of the book project, which is being funded by the Alpha Xi Delta Foundation, are to raise public awareness of our Fraternity and enrich the lives of children. In 2004, Alpha Xi Deltas were asked to submit children’s stories and sample illustrations appropriate for children ranging in ages from pre-schoolers to second graders. The best story and illustration were selected by a committee of Alpha Xi Delta early childhood educators. The winning children’s story, What Can I Do?, was written by Anne Beiser Allen, Alpha Pi Chapter at Middlebury College, and illustrated by Margo Pullman, Epsilon Phi Chapter at Iowa State University.

What Can I Do? is a key component of Reading Day. Beginning this fall, Alpha Xi Delta college chapters and alumnae associations can facilitate a Reading Day event in their communities. Events can be held in a variety of settings ranging from schools and libraries to Head Start programs and parks. The day’s activities can include reading What Can I Do? aloud; building reading-related skills through age-appropriate activities; providing parents and families with tips to help their children become good readers; and giving children their own copy of What Can I Do?

First Book

Chapters and associations may choose to provide additional books by working with First Book, a national nonprofit organization that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. Since its inception, First Book has provided nearly 33 million books to children in more than 1,300 communities across the country.

With financial support from matching-fund and incentive programs, First Book works with existing literacy programs at Head Start centers, preschool and after school programs, and Title 1 schools to provide one free book per month to each child enrolled in the program. Alpha Xi Delta chapters and associations would select a program to receive books, and would raise funds to support the program’s book purchase. First Book has matching fund and incentive programs that increase the amount of money from which books are purchased. Books are chosen from publishers’ catalogs by the program administrators who work with the children, they are incorporated into program lessons, then they are given to the children to take home and keep.