Your cap'n here! Hope you've all had smooth sailing this summer. I've had my share of traveling delays, but in those delays there were some unexpected treasures to be found.
On an unplanned layover in San Francisco, due to a random plane-grounding thunderstorm in Denver, I discovered something truly amazing.
There's a free writing tutoring center operating behind a pirate supply store in downtown San Francisco. It's called 826 Valencia, With a pirate store in front and a publishing company in the back, there's plenty of buccaneers and professional writers and editors on board to volunteer their time to help high school students improve their writing.
From a slow beginning, their program has grown to over a thousand community volunteers. They have placed writing centers in schools, helped high school students publish collections of essays, poems, and fiction, and inspired countless young writers to a high level of achievement. And now more and more writers and educators are opening similar tutoring centers all across the country. Some of them with their own unusual supply stores.
826 Valencia, the Scribblers Cove salutes you.
If you want to learn all about it, here's the founder of 826 Valencia, David Eggers, giving a TED talk on his fine establishment:
What a find, Rebecca! It makes me want to plan a visit to San Francisco.
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