I want you to meet my friend Renn.

Renn is 6 1/2 years old and has Epilepsy.

He is the son of Bethany Telles, author of “Waiting for James in a Sea of Pink,”. I have been following Renn’s battle with epilepsy on “The Brain of a Jedi” blog (Click HERE).

He gets seizures every day. They tried all kids of medications that didn’t work. Renn has had all kinds of tests and procedures done and they didn’t work.

 On October 28th the doctors are going to put some kind of grid in his brain to figure out what part of his brain is doing it and then they are going to take that part of his brain out. They may have to take a whole section out.

Renn Likes Star Wars. He’s A Jedi Master!

As if having part of your brain taken out at 6 1/2 years old isn’t enough, the Telles family has to deal with living pretty far away from the hospital that Renn gets the procedures done at and there are a lot of medical bills.

This is all really hard for me to think about (I can’t imagine what Renn’s brother, Eli is going though). Renn is so young and he is facing some scary stuff. His whole family is. I saw that the Telles family set up a donation page to help with Renn’s medical expenses (click HERE) and I wanted to help, but I am an 11-year-old kid and I felt pretty helpless. 

I thought about what I could do to help Renn and his family. I thought about what I can do, what I can do better than anyone I know. I came up with…

READING.

Super Reader and I are very good friends.

This gave me an idea. I am the fastest reader of anyone I know. 

I thought about how I could turn my super reader power into something helpful and I came up with “Reading for Renn.”

Designed by Julie Rowan~Zoch

I am asking people and businesses to sponsor me for the month of October. Sponsor me for every AR point I get. For those of you who don’t know AR is Accelerated Reader. AR is a program that some schools do. Kids read books, take tests and get points. The goal set for me by the school this year, as a sixth grader, is 60 points. My personal goal for this year is to get 1505 points (just enough to beat the district record I set last year 😉 ). For Reading For Renn,  my goal is to get 150 AR points for the month of October. You can follow my progress right here. I will keep track of the points I get and I’ll have a little widget on my side bar too.

FOR EXAMPLE – If someone sponsors me for 10 cents for every point and I get 150 points they donate $15.00 to Reading for Renn which goes to the Telles family to help cover Renn’s medical costs. On November 1st I will announce the total AR points I earned for the month of October. Please think about sponsoring me, spreading the word or just cheering me on!

Designed by Julie Rowan~Zoch

If you would like to sponsor me, please leave a comment in the comment section. You don’t have to leave your name if you don’t want to, just an email address I can contact you at the end of the month with instructions on how to make the donation to Reading for Renn. If you’d like to make a donation directly, you can click on the PayPal** button at the bottom of this post (you don’t have to have a PayPal account to make the donation).

Please share my fund-raiser with the people you know. I was really surprised at how serious Epilepsy can be. I didn’t know all of this until I met Renn. I think more people should know about it. 

All money I raise will go to helping the Telles family pay medical bills and stuff related to Renn’s care. If they have more than they need, I will ask them to donate the rest to The Epilepsy Foundation. A great organization dedicated to finding a cure for Epilepsy.

I want to give special thanks to Susanna Leonard Hill for giving me advice and suggestions on this Hare-Brained Scheme. 🙂 Thanks to Julie Rowan-Zoch for designing the awesome Reading for Renn button (that you are welcome to share and link back here) and the image for the point counter! 

Thank you for taking the time to read this! Now excuse me, I have to get back to reading!

UPDATE #1 – Want the code for the Reading for Renn Button?!?

Click HERE to hop on over to S&K’s blog post with the code they developed and copy it for you to use!

Thank you to Cool Mom of the S&K gang for writing this! Check out Stanley and Karina’s book and blog by clicking HERE!

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UPDATE #2 – NY Media Works Just pledged to MATCH the money I raise! I am trying even HARDER to read as much as I can! My mom just got me their latest book – The Bubblegum Princess! Click HERE to order it! Click HERE to visit NY Media’s website!

UPDATE #3 I got the Purple Lightsaber Award from Renn! Battle on Renn! So many people are behind you!

My Reading for Renn Challenge is over. Thank you all very much! With your help I was able to raise over $3000.00 for the Telles family! May the force be with all of you!

Categories: Other Stuff Related to Books and Reading

Tags: accelerated reader, bethane telles, bibliophile, bookworm, brain of a jedi, elipepsy, family