David Yurman opened their South Coast Plaza doors for the first time since the COVID pandemic restrictions to some 50 guests for a fundraiser to benefit The Literacy Project. Sue Grant, founder and volunteer CEO, and John McMonigle, founder of Agent Inc., served as hosts of the event along with DY’s Regional Director Monica Isaacs and store General Manager Melanie Scheller. Guests mingled among the luxurious DY jewelry famous for its crafted silver and gold artistry. The evening raised over $23,000, with special thanks to former board member Ronna and Bill Shipman who donated $10,000 to the cause.
For the second annual year, David Yurman has offered to donate 10% of all proceeds to TLP’s mission of serving underprivileged and struggling readers in the local area school districts. The proceeds will provide TLP’s reading program “free of cost” to children with reading skills that have been dramatically affected during the COVID pandemic this past school year. Now more than ever, TLP’s program is critical in building a foundational base in reading skills among second graders, especially since retention loss is climbing to an estimated 30% due to distant online learning. Students with prior difficulty and failing scores in language arts are bound to suffer an illiteracy pandemic without the additional aid of specialized programming.
“Literacy is a key component to living a fruitful life and is essential for healthy and successful child development. At Agentinc., we realize literacy can drastically effect a child’s outcome, and we are devoted to helping them achieve a bright and fulfilling future each step of the way,” States John McMonigle, Founder, Agentinc.
About The Literacy Project:
The Literacy Project’s (TLP) mission is to eliminate the literacy gap of emerging second graders who are functionally illiterate. Our vision is to remove the impediment of illiteracy from the lives of our most vulnerable children with the help of teachers, volunteers, mentors and role models. To date, The Literacy Project’s proven track record has helped more than 10,000 struggling readers, throughout California, Utah and Arizona, gain critical basic phonetic skills and become more self-confident in reading ensuring advancement to third grade with reading level proficiency. We will strive to foster in our children the life-long love of reading, for it is the doorway to learning and achieving the American Dream.
Photos: (l-r)
