Dream: One City, One Book
Last Friday Mayor Bartlett and Victoria Bartlett interacted with
Robertson Elementary 5th graders in a special reading of the
award-winning Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom & Wishes
by Susan Bosak. The mayor and his wife also launched the One City,
One Book (Dream) program to celebrate National
Grandparents Day on Sept. 11.
Dream,
illustrated by 15 top artists from around the world, has won 11
national awards, including an International Reading Association
Children's Choice (10,000 students read and voted on the books they
liked best), a Teachers' Choice, and an iParenting Award.
"Children and adults alike need to know you're never too young
or too old to dream. That's what makes life so rich and
meaningful," Mayor Bartlett said. "By launching the One City, One
Book initiative, we will also be setting the stage for our Across
the Generations event on October 10. Tulsans of all ages will
gather together then to listen, talk, plan, and dream a better
future for our city. We want to ensure we have a strong,
intergenerational city - one that will become a model for the rest
of the country, he added."
During the next few months, families are encouraged to read and
discuss the Dream book, older adults will be invited into
schools to read the book to students, and children can visit
seniors' residences to share a reading. Copies of Dream
have been generously donated to local schools, libraries, and
seniors groups by The Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation. The book
is also available in local bookstores.
Opportunities will also be available for children and teens,
ages 8 - 18, to interview older Tulsans, record their legacies, and
enter the Listen to a Life Essay Contest. Contestants can
interview a grandparent or grandfriend 50 years or older about
their life's hopes and dreams, how they overcame obstacles to
achieve their goals and then submit a 300-word essay.
The Grand Prize in the national Listen to a Life Essay
Contest is a Lenovo ThinkCentre computer plus the school of
the winning young person receives $25,000 of EdOptions' Orchard
software. 20 runner-up prizes include an MP3 player. Young Tulsans
will also be eligible for a special Legacy Award - an iPod Nano and
$800 of Orchard software and, for the winner's school, $25,000 of
EdOptions' Orchard educational software. The contest runs until
March 30, 2012.
The City of Tulsa has partnered with the national Legacy Project
on the
Across the Generations initiative. For more information about
One City, One Book, details about the Listen to a Life Contest and
online family activities, visit: www.legacyproject.org/tulsa
