We are La Curacao, a retail department store focused to the Hispanic community. We organized a story hour for the children in the communities near our store in Los Angeles. We encouraged children to come to the summer reading program, "Alegria de Leer," via posters and radio announcements. For each of the past six summers we have hosted this 6-9 week program. Children enjoy coming to listen, learn and have fun doing a craft.

We read stories in English and Spanish and provide a reading tip sheet for parents so they can continue good reading habits with their children at home. We have a frequent-reader gift for participating youth – each child receives a gift bag with a book and activities.

This year we started a "Mi Biblioteca" program, which encourages kids to illustrate a story that was distributed to them at story hour and keep it in their "library".