826 National
826 Chapters

826 Valencia

Named for our location in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, 826 Valencia opened on April 8, 2002 and consists of a writing lab, a street-front student-friendly retail pirate store that partially funds our programs, and a satellite classroom in a nearby middle school. We have developed programs that reach students at every possible opportunity—in school, after school, in the evenings, or on the weekends. Since we opened our doors, over 1000 volunteers—including published authors, magazine founders, SAT course instructors, documentary filmmakers, and other professionals—have donated their time to work with thousands of students. These incredible volunteers allow us to offer all of our services for free.

  • Opened: April 2002
  • Serves: San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District
  • Neighborhood: The Mission District
  • Number of Volunteers: 1,400 
  • Most Recent Publication: Exactly—an anthology of 56 illustrated children's stories written by students at Wallenberg Traditional High School
  • Storefront: Pirate Supply Store
  • Field Trips Hosted: 119 in 2006/07
  • In-Schools Sessions: 310 in 22 schools in 2006/07
  • Tutoring Space: 2,000 square feet
  • Workshops Offered: 49 in 2006/07
  • Average Daily Drop-in Tutoring Attendance: 45 students
  • Total number of students served: 6,065
  • Staff: Nínive Calegari, Joel Arquillos, Lauren Hall, Leigh Lehman, Erin Neeley, Jory John, Anna Ura, Alvaro Villanueva, Marisa Gedney
  • Board of Directors: Barb Bersche, Jennifer Bunshoft, Nínive Calegari, Dave Eggers, Abner Morales, Bita Nazarian, Alexandra Quinn, Vendela Vida, Richard Wolfgram

For more information check out 826 Valencia.



826NYC

826NYC's writing center opened its doors in September 2004. Since then their programs have offered over one thousand students opportunities to improve their writing and to work side by side with community volunteers. This past year they built their first satellite tutoring center, created in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library, which has introduced their programs to an entirely new community of students. In 2007, they are planning to publish five new books of student writing.

  • Opened: June 2004
  • Serves: New York City Public Schools
  • Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • Number of Volunteers: 800 
  • Most Recent Publication: Behind the Uniforms——An anthology of graphic fiction, cartoons & true stories, written and edited by Academy of College Preparation and Career Exploration
  • Storefront: Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.
  • Field Trips Hosted: 67 in 2006/07
  • In-Schools Sessions:  37 in 2006/07
  • Tutoring Space: 1200 square feet
  • Workshops Offered: 41 in 2006/07
  • Total number of students served: 2,561
  • Staff: Scott Seeley, Joan Kim, Kate Ackerman, Josh Martin, Anthony Mascorro, Jennifer Snow, Ted Thompson
  • Board of Directors: Nínive Calegari, Brenda Chan Casimir, Dave Eggers, Bill Heinzen, Jeanette Lee, Tynnetta McIntosh, Jon Scieszka, Sarah Vowell, Sean Wilsey

For more information check out 826NYC.



826LA

826LA benefits greatly from the wealth of cultural and artistic resources in the Los Angeles area. Every month, they present a free workshop at the Armand Hammer Museum in which esteemed artists, writers, and performers teach their craft. And last spring they collaborated with the J. Paul Getty Museum to create Community Photoworks, a months-long program that taught seventh-graders the basics of photographic composition and analysis, sent them into Los Angeles with cameras, and then helped them polish artist statements. Since opening, they’ve provided thousands of hours of free one-on-one writing instruction. They’ve sent volunteers into schools all over Los Angeles, held two summer camps for English language learners, given students sportswriting training in the Lakers press room, and published love poems written from the perspective of leopards.

  • Opened: March 2005
  • Serves: Los Angeles Unified School District
  • Neighborhood: Venice Beach, Echo Park
  • Number of Volunteers: 550 
  • Most Recent Publication: Walking through Walls, a collection of narratives and poems by the students of the Los Angeles School of Global Studies
  • Storefront: Echo Park Time Travel Mart
  • Field Trips Hosted: 21 in 2006/07
  • In-Schools Sessions:  67 in 2006/07
  • Tutoring Space: 3,500 square feet
  • Workshops Offered: 36 in 2006/07
  • Total number of students served: 1,243
  • Staff: Mac Barnett, Julius Diaz Panoriñgan, Amy Orringer, Danny Hom
  • Board of Directors: Joshuah Bearman, Nínive Calegari, Dave Eggers, Jodie Evans, John T. Gilbertson, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, Keith Knight, Melissa Mathison, Sally Willcox

For more information about this or other events, please check out 826LA.



826CHI

826CHI or Chicago, opened its writing lab and drop-in tutoring center in the West Town community of Chicago, in the Wicker Park neighborhood. The setting is both culturally lively and teeming with schools: within one mile, there are fifteen public schools comprising more than 16,000 students.

  • Opened: October 2005
  • Serves: Chicago Public Schools
  • Neighborhood: Wicker Park
  • Number of Volunteers: 643
  • Most Recent Publication: A Sunday Afternoon Hotdog Meal, a guide to Chicago written and illustrated by 205 elementary school students
  • Storefront: The Boring Store
  • Field Trips Hosted: 98 in 2006/07
  • Tutoring Space: 1600 square feet
  • Workshops Offered: 75 in 2006/07
  • Total number of students served: 5,471
  • Staff: Mara Fuller O’Brien, Amanda Bruscino, Kait Steele, Patrick Shaffner
  • Board of Directors:  Stephanie D’Alessandro, Staci Davidson, Monica Eng, Larry Feinberg, Ira Glass, Justine Jentes, Trista Hertz, Dan Kuruna, Kyra Kyles, Mara O’Brie, Matt Schrecengost, Jan Zasowski

For more information, check out 826CHI.



826 Seattle

Their writing center is in Greenwood, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city. The sheer number of Latino businesses might make you think it was the predominant ethnic group, but the Asian community eclipses them statistically. During tutoring, they also have a significant number of Ethiopian children, which leads them to believe their community is growing in importance. Thankfully, this multicultural community seems to love them and their store, the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co., whose revenue helps support their writing programs. Nearby restaurants have donated food for their workshop “How to Write Food Reviews.” The local library calls them frequently for additional workshop flyers.

  • Opened: October 2005
  • Serves: Seattle Public School District and greater Seattle area school districts
  • Neighborhood: Greenwood
  • Number of Volunteers: 229
  • Most Recent Publication: Burning the Past—a collection of essays, poems, and fiction written and edited by high school students, with a foreword by Charles Mudede
  • Storefront: Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.
  • In-Schools Sessions: 34 in 2007
  • Field Trips Hosted: 63 hosted during the 2006/07 school year
  • Tutoring Space: 2000 square feet
  • Workshops Offered: 38 between July 2006 and July 2007
  • Total number of students served: 2,040
  • Staff: Teri Hein, Alex Allred, Justin Allan, Norma Andrade
  • Board of Directors:  Sherman Alexie, David Brotherton, Elizabeth Duffell, Teri Hein, Pam MacEwan, Shawn Rediger, Ann Senechal, Joan Hiller, Matthew Leavenworth

For more information on these developments and more, check out 826Seattle.



826 Michigan

826 Michigan partnered with a number of organizations in our community to combine resources and reach more students. Kim Pavlock and Cathy Fleischer from Eastern Michigan University led a workshop for parents who wanted to learn more about how to encourage at home their student writers in grades K‒12. Parents are still calling and inquiring about when the next one will be.

  • Opened: June 2005
  • Serves: Ann Arbor Public Schools, Ypsilanti Public School District, and Willow Run Community Schools
  • Neighborhood: Ann Arbor
  • Number of Volunteers: 400
  • Most Recent Publication: Vacansopapurosophobia 2: Fear of a Blank Page—This volume features sixty-six stories, poems, essays, and a play
  • Storefront: Monsters Union Local 826
  • In-Schools Sessions: 152 in 2006/07
  • Tutoring Space: Over 1000 square feet
  • Workshops Offered: 64 in 2006/07
  • Total number of students served: 1,030
  • Staff: Amanda Uhle, Erin Bennett, Amy Sumerton
  • Board of Directors:Keith Hood, Jessica Krivan, Patrick Cooper, Angela DeSmet, Laura Wagner, Margaret Krasnoff, Bruce DeMaine, Linda Adler, Richard Weise, Laura London, Julie Gagne

For more details on this and other 826 Michigan happenings, check out 826michigan.



826 BOSTON

826 Boston—the newest member of the 826 family—kicked off its programming in the spring of 2007 by inviting authors Junot Díaz, Steve Almond, Holly Black, and Kelly Link to lead writing workshops at the English High School. The visiting writers challenged students to modernize fairy tales, invent their ideal school, and tell their stories. Afterwards a handful of dedicated volunteers followed up with weekly visits to help students develop their writing craft. The upshot will be a publication rich with essays, stories, poems, wish lists, and questions “for which there seem to be no answers.”

We’ve thrown open our doors in Roxbury’s Egleston Square—a culturally diverse community south of downtown that stretches into Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester. We’re neighbors with more than 20 Boston schools, a dance studio, the Boston Neighborhood Network (a public-access television station), and many Caribbean, African American, and Latin American businesses and restaurants. We’re thrilled with our sunny new home, where we plan to offer field trips and workshops to students, as well as after-school tutoring and myriad publishing opportunities.

  • Opened: September 2007
  • Serves: Boston Public Schools and greater Boston area school districts
  • Neighborhood: Roxbury, Egleston Square
  • Number of Volunteers: 170
  • Most Recent Publication: English High School collection coming soon
  • Storefront: The Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute
  • Programming: in-school book project at English High School with workshops, drop-in, and field trips launching in 2008
  • Tutoring space: 1336 square feet
  • Staff: Daniel Johnson, Hannah Nolan-Spohn
  • Board of Directors: Kevin Feeney, Jon Fullerton, John Giordano, Helen Jacobson, Paul Oh, Junia Yearwood

For more details on 826 Boston, check out 826 Boston.



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