Second PencilPALS event gathers mentors and students at P.S. 16 in Corona, Queens
NEW YORK— On June 11th, fifteen writer and actor mentors participated in the second PencilPALS event of the year at P.S. 16, an elementary school in Corona, Queens. PencilPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) is an offshoot of BookPALS, a nationwide program of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, and is part of the Writers Guild of America, East Foundation Literacy Committee.
At noon the writers went to several different first and second grade classrooms to read to students, as well as answer questions about the profession of writing. After half an hour, the writers rotated to different rooms, visiting twenty classrooms in all.
At 2 p.m. all of the writers gathered in the classroom of Janine Esposito to meet with their fifth grade pen pals. Some of the students had already met their mentors during the first PencilPALS event on May 21st, and they partnered up with students whose mentors were visiting the school for the first time. The students are currently doing a journalism project, and they spent the time interviewing different writers about their craft, profession, and other points of curiosity in addition to discussing their correspondences over the past year.
The WGAE Foundation mentors who attended this event include Anastasia Traina, Julie Martin, Mark St. Germain, Peter Grosz, Brant Englestein, Elisa Zuritsky, Adam Brooks, Cynthia Benjamin, Michael Slade, John Marshall, Jackie Reingold, Michael Rauch, Jan Albert, Shelly Altman, as well as Rebecca Damon from the SAG Foundation.
Click here to view the Wall Street Journal Article, "When Nora Ephron's your Pen Pal."
Click here to view the Yournabe.com article, "Corona kids meet their star pen pals."
