PRESS CONFERENCE TOMORROW

Well, tomorrow's the big day — we will announce who will be coming to Laredo for the 2010 One City, One Book. This is the third year that the city is host to an author, and we couldn't be more excited.

What: PRESS CONFERENCE to announce the author for One City, One Book

When: 11 a.m.

Where: The Laredo Public Library.

The book will be for sale in the lobby, and as always, the library has ordered several copies for check-out. So join us!

Check out the radio drive

The five Border Media stations are sponsoring a radio drive until July 11 to benefit the South Texas Food Bank.

The fifth annual Border Media-South Texas Food Bank radio drive for the hungry of the Laredo area is June 28 to July 11 over the five Border Media stations — La Ley 100.5, Hot 106.1, Digital 107.3, The Works 94.9 and Norteno 1490.

What: Border Media-South Texas Food Bank radio drive

When: now until July 11

Where: Laredo, TX

Any donation is welcome. The need is greater than ever. The food bank serves 21,000 families, 6,000-plus elderly and 6,000-plus children PER MONTH. And better yet, come to the food bank office, 1907 Freight at Riverside (one block

south of Calton Road) for a tour and to see how and what we do. Hunger exists in our own backyard.

Salo Otero

You can send monetary donations to

South Texas Food Bank

P.O. Box 2007

Laredo, TX 78044

Thank you, Director of Development Salo Otero, for passing along that information.

More info can be found here.

2010 Oklahoma Book Awards

Dr. George Stanley's book Night Fires was the Young Adult Winner in the 2010 Oklahoma Book Award for his story about a young boy who gets mixed up with the Ku Klux Klan in Lawton, Okla. The awards were presented by the Oklahoma Center for the Book on April 17. We have mentioned the book in a previous post.

2010 Oklahoma Book Award Winners

Congratulations, Dr. Stanley! Stanley is a professor at Cameron University in Lawton.

Daniel Chacon

Juan Carlos Nava, Daniel Chacon, Jason Herrera
Originally uploaded by laredofoodforthought

Earlier this evening, Daniel Chacon visited the Laredo Public Library. He read a few selections from his book of short stories, Unending Rooms. Afterwards, he took questions from the audience and stayed around to chat with people until the library closed. His friendly and inviting personality made it easy for young and old to ask questions about the progress of Chicano writing and writing in general. He said that interpretation of his work was best left to the readers since it did not matter what he meant; it was more important what message the reader got from it. Thanks to everybody who came out!

Congratulations

Congrats to Jason Herrera, an assistant to the founders of Food for Thought, for winning the Gates Millennium Scholarship. Jason does odd jobs for the foundation, from helping make the tickets for One City to welcoming our authors at the airport. Whatever needs to be done when we are swamped with work, Jason will take on. He spends time with our authors and talks to them behind the scenes, and they have treated him as an equal. Meeting with authors has helped with his own aspirations to author books, and he will start attending Oklahoma City University in the fall.

We have a Facebook page

If you have a Facebook, make sure to become a fan of our page.

Happy Monday!

How could I forget? FreeRice.com

This is an old favorite of mine, called FreeRice.com. It incorporates educational, multiple-choice games into its mission to fight hunger. For every question you answer correctly, 10 grains of rice will be donated to the United Nations World Food Programme. It's fun, easy and free. If you've never heard of this site before, now is the time to visit and play some games, all for a good cause.

- Cristina