Travel Tuesday: Omni welcomes kids and encourages them to read
Posted by MomOnMars on July 31, 2012
I love it when travel and causes combine. As in what’s happening at the new Omni San Antonio Hotel at the Colonnade. While most hotels now feature technology or a special arts and crafts program for children, the Omni is kicking it up a notch by helping to get kids reading.
A new in-suite library and “imagination wall” (a chalk board wall for kids to draw any magical images that comes to mind) make reading part of a fun family getaway. The hotel’s signature Kid’s Suites also feature children’s bedding, bean bag chairs, child-sized table and chairs, an art table, board games, cozy pint-sized bath robes, even a whimsical hat tree with hats that pair with a few of the in-room books …all with a connecting room for mom and dad.
But here’s where the magic happens: in San Antonio, the Omni has pledged 10 percent of the annual Kid’s Suite revenues to SAReads, a campaign for grade level reading coordinated by Literacy San Antonio, Inc. and designed to increase the grade-level literacy rates for children in Bexar County through its tutoring and parent education programs and a community-wide book bank. As a literacy volunteer, this makes me happy. Recent testing shows that 13% of third graders enrolled in Bexar County public schools are failing basic grade-level reading tests and many others are struggling readers at-risk of failing. Those are some scary stats. Anything and anybody that steps up to help turn that around makes me stand up and take notice.
How about you? What makes you choose one hotel over another? Does presenting an opportunity to help others make the difference in where you decide to stay?
