on reading to children
Manila, 17 November—Visited the old HQ to help emcee yesterday’s opening session of this year’s Read-Along Festival, which is now on its 8th astounding run. This year’s theme is “Maging Magiting”, hence the stories read to the kids focused on themes of courage, fearlessness and bravery.
Inquirer president Sandy Prieto-Romualdez led the roster of readers with a retelling of Rene Villanueva’s “Sina Linggit laban sa Barakuda,” in which a group of small fishes led by Linggit band together to fight the large and mean Barakuda. (Team Read-Along has always been at the forefront of excellent subliminal messaging, and this story is an easy and golden fit haha.)
Other readers were from Miss Earth led by Read-Along ambassador Cathy Untalan-Vital, who read Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” with Miss Earth-Philippines 2018 Celeste Cortesi and Miss Fire-Philippines 2018 Jean de Jesus; Ayala Foundation President Ruel Maranan, who read a kid-friendly version of the first Philippine flag’s journey; and Ang Pinoy Storytellers’ Rich Rodriguez, who has been with the Read-Along since forever, and who read “Ang Binibining Tumalo sa Mahal na Hari”.
My former teammates Ana and Rafi wrote about the morning’s shenanigan’s here. This post also features SPR’s excellent make-up and props. SPR has always been a supporter of the Read-Along, and if memory serves, she has always made it a point to show up for the kids at the Festival, complete with elaborate props that even professional storytellers envy hehe.
The orange face make-up, however, is new, as far as I’m concerned. SPR’s truly all-in whenever a performance at the Festival is concerned: I still remember half the office going gaga because SPR’s sofa’s throw pillows went missing one Festival morning two years ago—only to find out that she had put them inside her Filemon Mamon costume. Haha.
Anyway, it was so so lovely to see everyone who are still solid behind this project, which is now over a decade old. When this started in 2007, it was literally just a tiny library set-up with two dozen kids. Today, over ten years later, the award-winning program has touched the reading lives of thousands of children from all over the country over the course of the years.
And if it delighted any 10-year-old in a 2007 session? That kid is likely already about to enter the workforce anytime soon. Seeing many of our Read-Along babies now grown-up makes me teary-eyed, literally. Luntian Justo, who is the daughter of our veteran storyteller partner Dyali Justo, went from the cutesy kid we met in 2008 to this stunning young lady I ran into at the lobby in what felt like a blink of an eye.
Where does time go, no? :)
In my time working as core member of the Read-Along (a title that I have still been allowed to hold to this day, despite my departure from the company two years ago, and for which I am grateful), I learned so many things by working with the best mentors and the most hardworking colleagues.
This year, I brought my girlfriend C around to the old office so she could see for herself why the Inquirer, the Read-Along, and the Festival all hold a special place in my heart. We spent the morning going around and meeting new-old friends (and breaking new-old news haha), and in all, it turned out well.
The Festival has always been, and will always be a showcase of the best of us—a decade’s worth of replicating and fine-tuning processes and working with new and returning partners and volunteers. Amid changes and departures—kids graduate, partners and co-workers move, resign, retire, priorities shift constantly—the family remains always growing, always expanding. I think that’s both the mystery and the solution at the heart of what has propelled the read-along all these years.
I read a piece yesterday on the Harvard Business Review, about leaving a job you love, and I think it’s worth ending this with a quote from that piece by Gianpiero Petriglieri:
“I don’t think it’s worth loving a job, or an organization. Let me repeat it: They will not love you back. But if a job, or an organization, helps you find work and people worth loving, then it has been good and it is worth honoring.”