Christ Church sponsors reading of new children's book

Christ Church of Longboat Key hosted new children’s book authors Pamela Marck and Ellie Fernands to debut their book "Jamani’s Lucky Day: Searching for Endangered Gorillas" on April 25 at the 13th Avenue Dream Center in Bradenton.

The Dream Center provides a safe and free after-school program for elementary school students living in downtown Bradenton. They offer homework help, tutoring, art and sports programs to encourage meaningful learning experiences for the students.

Christ Church has been partnering with the organization through a program called Reading Buddies for many years. During the school year, congregants from the church will come every other week and read with children in grades kindergarten to third grade. Beverly Sutton from Christ Church has been the chair of the program for 17 years.

Photo by Petra Rivera

“The kids are the absolute best part about running this program,” said Sutton. “They are such beams of light and are so open to learning. I love that we get to know them and impact them even just a little bit. We are always going into this thinking we are going to teach them something, but in reality, we learn a lot from them too. So, it is really this amazing relationship we are building.”

Sutton and her committee also organize enrichment programs for the children. For previous enrichment programs, they have hosted an artist and two volleyball players from the University of Texas.

Photo by Petra Rivera

Marck and Fernands led the reading of their new book, "Jamani’s Lucky Day: Searching for Endangered Gorillas." 

The two Sarasota-based authors are former educators and best friends who travel together. 

Recently, they had life-changing experiences visiting Africa to see endangered gorillas. The book is about their trip from the point of view of a young tour guide leading them through the jungle. Marck and Fernands hope that their book will educate children about endangered animals and encourage them to be passionate about environmental conservation.

Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund to help with conservation efforts.

Christ Church purchased 40 signed copies of "Jamani’s Lucky Day" for each of their reading buddies to get one. Marck and Fernands led them through the first half of the book with an interactive version of the story and fun facts about gorillas.

Photo by Petra Rivera

The students were invested in the story and said that their favorite part was learning gorilla facts such as gorillas have emotions just like humans do.

“The kids were so attentive and interested in the story, which is what we wanted,” said Fernands. “We hope that this will help them become interested in conservation on our planet. Just by doing this locally, we hope they can share the information with someone. Then maybe they will start to notice things in nature and just appreciate the world around them.”