Author Jerry Pallotta visits Pond Cove!

Two years ago, Joy Engel’s son was in Kindergarten and just starting to read. His teacher handed him a Who Would Win? book, in which two animal species are compared and contrasted—with one ultimately being declared a victor over the other. He was hooked. Engel reached out to the PCPA with an ask: could we help bring the author of these books, Jerry Pallotta, to Pond Cove? The PCPA loved the idea.

Working with Pond Cove to schedule the visit? This was the easy part! We are lucky to have amazing teachers and staff that welcome opportunities to supplement and bring the curriculum to life. The challenge was tackling Pallotta’s fee. As a high profile author on best seller lists, Pallotta commands a fee that is more than double the PCPA’s annual budget for Visiting Authors. So our officers got creative. In addition to finding room in our finances, we connected Engel and Pond Cove Librarian Cameron Rosenblum to CEEF‘s grant program. CEEF generously approved their request, which ultimately covered 49% of Pallotta’s fee.

We are grateful to Joy Engel for reaching out to us and inviting Jerry Pallotta to Pond Cove. In addition to being the author of a highly-successful series of books, he turned out to be a wonderful speaker. He skillfully tailored his presentations to the different grades and gave children ample time to participate and ask questions. What a wonderful use of our Visiting Author funds!

Parent groups are the backbone of so many schools, their work another layer of invisible labor. I’m so grateful for ours. —Joy Engel