By Anabel Martinez and Denise Gary
What a thrilling grand opening we experienced for our new headquarters at 2450 West Broadway Road, Suite 110 in Mesa, Arizona! The open house and ribbon cutting ceremony—sponsored by Literologie and facilitated by Mesa Chamber of Commerce—was so well attended, and filled with excitement and enthusiasm! We thank everyone for attending and making our special day so memorable!
For a little bit of KNTR history, we became a tax exempt organization in 2008, operating out of our homes. Since then, we have inhabited a one-room office and then a small 1940’s era converted house before moving into the new suite. The current building is the first to have warehouse space in which to house large shipments of books and periodicals. Needless to say, it has been an incredible experience to see just how much we have been able to grow through everyone’s support and faith in our mission—inspiring a culture of reading for children where they need it most!
We kicked off the grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony courtesy of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce! Thanks so much to Sally Harrison, Susan Tychman, and the rest of the Chamber members who so kindly supported the event! See video of the ribbon cutting here, here, and here, courtesy of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Bob!
Most of the action occurred in our event space, decorated with literacy-themed art prints, photos celebrating our READ Together program (created by RMG Imaging Artists, which subleases space from KNTR), sparkling stars overhead, a celebratory disco ball from our first Phoenix Comicon Geek Prom, and, of course, books on brightly colored shelves!
Refreshments, including delicious Mediterranean food from Princess Deli, were provided by event sponsor Literologie. Literologie has been very generous to KNTR, not only funding the grand opening but sponsoring the 2014 holiday party and donating an iPad for use as a POS system at events.
Guests were able to pick up free swag!
We had local costumers come out to celebrate with us. The cosplay community has always been incredibly supportive of KNTR, and visitors got to meet Darth Vader, Mandalorians, Deadpool, Supergirl, and more! Thank you to Joe A. Gutierrez, Jr., Tyfani Johnson, and Heroes and Villains of Tomorrow.
Let there be CAKE—a gift of Costco! We are all resident choco-holics here, and we had a delightful cake cutting ceremony with more than enough cake to go around. It was truly scrumptious!
We were thrilled to see members of Silent Hope Church attend, as they had devoted themselves to constructing the new industrial shelves in our warehouse before the Grand Opening. They are incredibly efficient and hard working! We do not know what we would have done without them!
Lions Bill and Barbara Worbington presented a $300 check on behalf of Mesa Host Lions Club toward the READ Together program! The funds will be used to purchase books for the program at Lowell Elementary School in Mesa, each in the name of one of the club’s weekly speakers.
KNTR volunteer Angela Fox came bearing gifts of new books!
Patience Fones of Bonny Books also contributed a gift of beautiful new books!
Carl Jimenez brought a donation of books and cash he collected as part of his holiday light show! What a fun way to support Kids Need to Read!
Sparkling wine, accompanied by a congratulatory balloon, was presented by volunteer Rebecca Carter.
Randy Knight brought out his Charity Art Cleavers, giving us all a special sneak preview before their live auction benefiting Kids Need to Read at Phoenix Comicon!
What kind of party doesn’t have prizes? Raffle prizes donated by Bonny Books, Changing Hands Bookstore, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Out of Print, Phoenix Comicon, and The Nail Spot were a big hit!
We were fortunate to have media coverage, including reporters and photographers from Channel 5 News and Raising Arizona Kids Magazine. We were so happy to be featured in this article by RAK Magazine.
We greatly appreciate everyone who took the time to visit with us during our celebration and would love to show the new headquarters to anyone in the community who is interested in visiting! To learn more, email info@kidsneedtoread.org or call 480-256-0115.
In the end, our night was filled with smiling faces and new friendships. We look forward to growing with the local community in our new Mesa home!
