Dedham Schools Join More Than 20 Million Participants for Dot Day

DEDHAM, MA - This Saturday at 10am The Blue Bunny bookshop is inviting all students in the Dedham school system to a Dot Day Party. The festivities will add to the celebrations of over 21 million children and adults around the globe in 196 countries who celebrate International Dot Day – a grassroots “creativity and courage” movement, which is celebrated on or around “September 15th-ish.”

Reynolds’ own independent bookshop The Blue Bunny, located in Dedham Square, will be hosting a #DotDay open house this Saturday from 10am to 1pm, which will feature dot-making activities for all ages, and book signing by Reynolds of the three books in his Creatriology series; The Dot, Ish and Sky Color. To help mark the occasion, The Blue Bunny and Catching Joy, a local non-profit that promotes volunteerism by kids and families, are teaming up to collect books for underserved communities. Beginning on Dot Day - and through the month of September - the groups are encouraging donations of new or gently used books at The Blue Bunny to share the joy of reading for kids in need. Catching Joy will also provide supplies at The Blue Bunny to make bookmarks decorated with colorful dots to donate with your books.

International Dot Day began in 2009 when Iowa teacher Terry Shay introduced his classroom to Reynolds’ book, and his student’s noticed the original publishing date of The Dot was Sept. 15, 2003. The students decided to celebrate the book’s birthday – and, little did they know, launched what would become a worldwide celebration of creativity and courage to “make your mark.”

Inspired by Peter H. Reynolds’ classic storybook for all ages The Dot, International Dot Day inspires young and old to embrace the power of creativity to make their mark on the world, and help move it to a better place. Reynolds and his twin brother Paul hosted a live stream video event in partnership with Microsoft’s FlipGrid group on Wednesday that was watched by over 13,000 classrooms in 131 countries with increasing viewership via the on-demand video recording.

Exploring the themes of creativity, bravery and self-expression, The Dot is a story of a perceptive and caring teacher who reaches a reluctant student who thinks she can’t draw by encouraging her be brave enough to “just make a mark and see where it takes you.” The Dot has been translated into many languages (including Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew, Spanish and even Braille) and the animated film of The Dot (produced by Reynolds’ multimedia design and development firm FableVision Studios and co-producer Scholastic) earned the Carnegie Medal of Excellence.

A copy of The Dot book was even rocketed into space, and read by Canadian Astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield serving at Commander aboard the International Space Station. The Dot’s author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds explains, “Commander Hadfield snapped a few photos of The Dot book floating in the cupola of the space station. On his last day of his recent Boston visit, he handed me my book, which he had signed, noting that this copy…had made 2,500 trips around the big blue dot – planet Earth.” The actual book that made the trip to space is on display at The Blue Bunny bookshop.

After launching in 2009, International Dot Day garnered increasing attention, simply through word of mouth, in schools, libraries, and communities around the globe. By 2011, registrations had reached 17,500 participants in several states. Noticing the phenomenon, The Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, & Creativity, Reynolds’ nonprofit educational R&D and creative learning support center, helped provide program support for the worldwide Dot Day event. The organization built and manages the International Dot Day website, which provides free registration for the event, along with many free resources, including downloadable Dot Day Educator’s Handbook, multilingual posters, and an official participation certificate. With the Reynolds Center’s help, participation soared past the 850,000 mark in 2012 – and, by 2013 involvement grew to 1.3 million participants in 84 countries. The count now stands at close to 22 million participants in 196 countries.

For more information about International Dot Day, search for #InternationalDotDay on social media, visit www.internationaldotday.org, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/InternationalDotDay.
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