EDUCATION NEWS
April 3, 2009
A Treasure Trove for Young Writers
A writing center turns San Francisco youth into published authors
The Pirate Supply Store attracts many San Francisco passersby. It's stocked with pirate necessities like seasickness tablets, anti-gangrene medicine and designer glass eyes. But it's the room beyond that is the real treasure. Bustling with kids, volunteers, parents and teachers, 826 Valencia is a place where pirate fans and landlubbers alike can develop their writing skills.
The nonprofit was co-founded by author Dave Eggers and educator Ninive Calegari in 2002. It welcomes kids 6 to 18 years old for tutoring, fieldtrips and writing workshops—all free of charge! All sales from the Pirate Supply Store go to the 826 Valencia Writing Center.
 |  NANCY WIENS TFK Kid Reporter Erin Wiens St. John spoke with the program director of 826 Valencia, Jory John (middle) and co-founder Ninive Calegari (right). |
"[826] is an expression of [my] life's work," Eggers told TFK. "It's what I think about from morning 'till night."
From Pirate Fans to Published AuthorsEach day after school, 80 kids thrive on one-on-one tutoring with volunteers, who help them tackle homework, writing projects and other subjects. Every morning, 826 hosts wildly creative class fieldtrips in which students from surrounding schools write stories and learn the art of bookmaking. The trips are so popular they book a year in advance.
In addition, 826 dispatches volunteers, at teachers' requests, to conduct in-school workshops and tutoring. Plus, nightly workshops bring professional writers, publishers and illustrators together with eager youth. Judy Blume, author of such popular books as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge, visited recently.
Jory John, the programs director, first fell in love with 826 as a volunteer. "I was a good fit for the place and it was a good fit for what I wanted to do with my life," he told TFK. "The mission of the place is great."
The best part? Some of the kids' writing gets published. One of the books, Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country, is a collection of kids' letters to the President. John got the idea for the book on election night when he saw the kids' enthusiasm about President Obama's victory. By Inauguration Day, he had finished editing the collection, which offers the President humor, hopes and suggestions.
One of the young authors, 10-year-old Diana Perez, said, "It was fun writing the letter because it gets published and Obama reads it."
Reaching Young Writers Across the CountryAfter great success in San Francisco, eager supporters expanded the organization into 826 National. There are now chapters of 826 Valencia in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Chicago and Seattle.
 Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country is a collection of about 75 letters to President Obama from the kids who attend 826 Writing Centers in seven cities across the country. | |
Eggers, who originally co-founded 826 with Calegari because he wanted to create a place where kids from a poor neighborhood in San Francisco could get help with their homework, said he felt surprised when it expanded. "It's been really fun to watch [826] grow in so many different directions," he said.
Today Eggers teaches a weekly class at 826 and runs McSweeney's Publishing House, which co-published Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country along with 826 Books. He is also a writer.
As for Calegari, she loves 826 because of the undivided attention given to kids and the focus on growing their self-confidence. "We tell them that writing is just a bunch of hard work, and then we prove to them that they have stories to tell," she said. She struggles, however, with serving the entire community. "There are 55,000 kids in San Francisco public schools, and we only served 6,000 last year," she said. "The demand is humungous."
