Very rarely am I ever this slow about writing entries here. Sorry! I’ve had lots on my mind. We are recording some great new albums next month! They are top secret right now but trust me, they’re great!

In late May I made a mad tour of California and was able to visit many of our vendors. I’ll share a few photos of my many visits and stops.

Michelle Potter hosts an awesome playspace for kids at the Kidspot Imagination Center. Sebastopol is a small semi-urban community located in western Sonoma County. I’d never actually driven through this part of California before. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Michelle Potter with her daughter [left] and the Kidspot Imagination Center.

Bob Krantz has been in the school supply business for 35 years and 34 of those years have been at the present location of School Daze in Santa Rosa. He can recount many, many interesting stories about the industry.

Bob Krantz [left] and his store, Skool Daze [right].

Bookworm Educational Supplies is located in Vallejo, California. According to owner, Kelli Orona, Vallejo is a bedroom community of San Francisco with many commuters leaving and returning daily. Kelli’s store is hopping with activity. Fueled by a neighboring tutoring service that Kelli also oversees, it seems that the Bookworm is always full of action and activity. Apart from the tutoring service and the store, Kelli and her husband also organize trips twice a year allowing local kids to visit the NASA program. Kelli is very proud of her programs and rightly so.

The Bookworm [left] and Kelli Orona [right].

Next stop was to El Cerrito where I visited with Charles Tai and his store Star Educational Supply. Charles has been a long time friend and customer. His store, in El Cerrito is just outside of San Francisco. According to Charles, over 112 different languages are spoken by children in the local school district West Contra Costa County Unified School District.

Charles [left] and his store [right].

Charles suggested that I take a trip to Pleasanton to see The Golden Apple Learning Store. John MacDougall, the store’s owner is a very high energy guy. You can see why the store naturally offers all sorts of events and fun activities for children. Just as I drove in, I caught John off to the local post office with a day’s worth of parcels to ship. Now with the price of gas, this might not be such a rare occurrence anywhere!

John MacDougall on his bicycle [left] and his store [right].

I have been in love with Texas ever since the three years I lived in Denton, while attending college. Two weeks I fell in love all over again, but this time it was with McAllen, Texas. McAllen is great. I’d love to live there! You can see the sun from every place in McAllen. No tall buildings. The air, although warm (or perhaps hot!) seems very clean. The people are friendly and the city boasts an enormous medical center. It seems as though I’m not the only person who feels this way. Upon my return I read an article on CNN online listing the top 10 places to live in the USA. Guess which place was #1? McAllen! Let me take you on a quick trip through Humble, Texas and on to McAllen.

As you know, everything in Texas is big; so big that it made sense for me to fly to McAllen rather than drive from Houston. On my way to the airport I stopped in to visit Debby Barnett Beal at the A2Z Educational Supplies Store in Humble, Texas. Debby’s store is filled to the brim with neat, educational resources and as she says, it’s really close to the airport!

The A2Z Educational Supply Store [left] and Debbie Barnett Beal [right] helping a customer in her store.

The gigantic Gateway Printing and Office Supply headquarters is located in Edinburg, a short distance down the highway from McAllen. The main store is housed in an old building with plank floors. It feels like stepping back in time, especially because of the friendly customer service. At the back of the store, within the same building, is the printing operation.

The enormous, Gateway store [left] and chatting with Shawnea Cantu [right], buyer.

O’Neil Specialty Company has been a McAllen family business for 3 generations. Although there are two locations for the O’Neil Specialty Company, I met with Nydia Garza at the home office and warehouse in McAllen.

The O’Neall warehouse located in McAllen [left] and Nydia Garza Califa [right] in her office.

Jones Cook Stationers is a well known chain right across Texas.
One of the main locations, which has an excellent selection of educational resources, is located right in McAllen. Austin Miller, Pily Almendarez and I had a great visit. I love McAllen and can hardly wait to return!

The educational audio display at Jones Cook Stationers [left], Austin Miller [right], manager and Pily Almendarez [bottom], sales associate.

I can’t think of any better place, to brag about our award-winning, English-Spanish Bilingual Songs series, than in Texas. For the past week I’ve been doing just that, criss-crossing Texas via planes and rental cars in order to visit as many educational retail stores as I can.

Now I can truly vouch for the old adage that everything in Texas is BIG! Big stores, big hearts and big aspirations! Texas is so big, as a matter of fact, that it’s easier and more cost effective to fly, from city to city, than to drive.

I began by visiting Cynthia Huereque in El Paso. Check-out her enormous, 9,000 square foot, store, Eraser Dust.

Then on to meet with Irma Escontrias, the owner of Houston’s Eraser Dust store.

Houston is also home to some pretty interesting and bright kids’ toy stores. About 30 minutes of GPS assisted driving took me to Esther Charubhat’s brand new colorful toy store, Westside Kinder Toys. This store has so many toys and activities packed into it that it is hard to walk!

It took a lot of sleuthing to find the site of Elayne Wolfe-McNeil’s A+ Literacy Education and Development but it was well worth it.

Next stop was Crystal Children and Teacher Supply to meet with manager, Merrylyn Thornton. This interesting store fills all of the curriculum needs of an educational store but also rivals the brightness and visual appeal of a toy store. With a teaching background, and presently directing the tutorial services, Merrylyn knows almost everything about every product in the store and can answer the questions of concerned teachers and parents with authority.

Houston’s West Side Teacher Supply store is managed by Rosalyn Arredono. Originally from El Salvador, Rosalyn is able to accommodate the needs of Hispanic as well as English speaking shoppers. West Side Teacher Supply is fairly new, and was one of the original sites of the Southwest Teacher Supply stores. The place was buzzing with the activity of teachers and parents doing last minute shopping before the beginning of the next school year.

Looking at the front of Coastal Teacher Supply in Houston, one would never imagine that Carole and Clyde’s store is as big as it is. This store is deceiving and you could spend an entire day inside discovering teaching materials.

Bright and cheerful Aurora Hart is the owner of Learning Tools in Humble, Texas. Since Aurora bought the business three years ago her store has now grown to 2 locations within the same plaza. Congratulations Aurora!

I’ll continue soon with the rest of my Texas tour, the home of big stores, big aspirations and big hearts!

p.s. If you ever rent a car, make sure you pay for the insurance package. Look at this damage and learn from my experience! Luckily I had paid the extra for insurance.

Many thanks to the guys at Midas Muffler, who found and replaced a burned-out fuse in my rental van, so that my GPS could continue to function. These guys saved my life as I tried to navigate the freeways of Houston!

I have a nickname for my daughter. I call her G.G. That’s short for Genius Girl. Last week G.G. came to visit and brought me a birthday present she had sculpted and painted – a cute little fridge magnet. G.G. has a talent for sculpting, illustration, animation, film making and designing clothes. School has never been easy for G.G. who daydreams and struggles through academic courses. I am mentioning this because I believe that all kids have a little genius inside of themselves. Of course, geniuses are not good at everything they do, but as teachers and parents, its an important and special challenge for us to spot and encourage the talents and strengths within each child.

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I’d like you to meet a unique woman, Silvia Saga de Pineda. Silvia lives in Guatemala where she teaches 27 kids (including her 5 year old daughter) in the garage of her home. Living in a high-risk, disadvantaged area, Silvia and her husband feel strongly that change can come about by offering each and every child a quality education. Silvia wrote to me last week, letting me know that she has been teaching her students using the songs in our newsletters. You can learn more about Silvia’s program by visiting her website, http://www.compartiendoesperanza.ws, or contact her directly to donate supplies to her school: silvisaga@gmail.com.

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Silvia Saga de Pineda and her class of children from a disadvantaged area of Guatemala.

This week I was offered a second gift subscription to People en Español for FREE when I renew my own subscription.

I know that there are so many of you out there whose classes might benefit from having People en Español in the reading center of your classroom or library.

Please email me if you’d like to be the recipient of this gift subscription. There is only one, so first come first serve! You must reside in the USA.

¡Hasta luego!

Sara

Sorry I haven’t posted many entries. I’ve just returned from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This time it wasn’t even for business, so except for being sick a couple of days, it was a great, restful vacation. I am absolutely in love with the Bed and Breakfast, that has become our home away from home when we are in San Miguel. I recommend it to anyone. Maricela is a fabulous cook. Breakfast and the main meal of the day, la comida, is served to all guests 6 days of the week. You can check-out her website here: http://www.casamaricela.com

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The view from our window [top left]. The streets of San Miguel [top right]. The Botanical Gardens [bottom left]. The colors of the town square [bottom right].

Life is good and the people are great. This is our fifth year exhibiting at Latin America’s largest book fair. Always well attended by professionals and the public alike.

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Sheila and Rogelio Terán of Exedra Books, in Panama [top left]. Excitement, music, publishers and people at the Guadalajara FIL.

I wasn’t looking forward to Tuesday morning! Behind the wheel of a rental car, I tried my best to maneuver myself through the freeways of San Antonio.

But the entire day was wonderful. The best thing about meeting with educational retailers and publishers is that everyone is as excited about helping kids as I am. I’m going to take you on a tour here, of the places and people I visited. I’ll include links to their websites so that you can have a close look at everything too. Isn’t the internet great?

My first meeting of the morning was with Leslie Boulet of PCI. PCI is an amazing place. In 1991, co-founders Janie Haugen-McLane and Jeff McLane had a vision of helping challenged children and adults become successful in life. They did this by publishing special education materials. Not only has this company become hugely successful with a staff of eighty, they also have a program, in-house, where they teach challenged adults to help out in the stock room. Leslie Boulet, who presently organizes the product for all of PCI’s catalogs was kind enough to take me on a tour.

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Leslie Boulet and the outside of PCI.

Next stop of the day was to the NES headquarters where I met with Joe Atkinson and Omar Cavacos in sales, and office manager Sylvia Cantu. NES is very well known in the state of Texas for its bilingual and Head Start programs which are thoughtfully assembled for school districts. The company was founded over a decade ago by Professor Lupe Garza.

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Sylvia Cantu and the outside of NES.

The Learning Zone is always a neat place to visit. Learning Zone has now expanded to include three stores in the San Antonio area. The most recent acquisition, The Education Shop, has kept its own name. I met with store manager Amanda Rendon who has such an incredible memory that she remembered everything about our last visit over two years ago. It’s easy to see that Learning Zone is a popular place. During my visit the place was hopping with teachers, coming in to pick up school supplies.

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Amanda Rendon and the outside of Learning Zone.

Last stop of the day was the beautiful SchooLocker where I met with Marlene Ehrsam. I was admiring the ceiling, which is “pillow insulation” painted blue to represent the sky, when Marlene told me that her sister, an architect before joining SchooLocker, had played a major part in the construction of the building. SchooLocker was founded by Marlene’s parents who own Guerra Publishing, a publishing company of educational resources teaching Spanish.

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Marlene Ehrsam and inside SchooLocker.