United Way chief writes children’s book

Rene Gellerman has put her pen where her passion is.

President/CEO of United Way Quad Cities for the past five years, she has penned a new children’s book that will be published this September by Texas-based Lucid Books.

Inspired by the QC, local students and her own kids, the book aims to inspire others. The 32-page story — “Adventures of Kids United: The Glass Bridge” — is aimed at 4-to-9-year-olds, and centers on themes of unity, teamwork, and community betterment. It’s envisioned to be the first in a series.

“I love to write, and I always thought someday I will write a book about my life,” Gellerman said Tuesday. “I’m not quite ready to do that. When I meet with kids — I learn about their life, all the great work we’re doing to try and empower these kids, it just never feels like enough.

“I want to inspire kids to think about dreaming big and to realize the power that they have to control their future and their community,” she said. “This book is really about that, to help kids see themselves as change-makers. If they want things different in their community, they have the power to do that.”

Gellerman worked for the Quad Cities Chamber for 12 years (last as senior vice president, overseeing the Q2030 strategic plan), and has been head of United Way QC for five years. She’s written local op-eds over the years, but this is her first hand at a book.

Between her husband David (CEO of Hawkeye Commercial Real Estate) and herself, they have five grown children, represented as characters in the book.

“Each one of them has their own unique gifts,” Rene Gellerman said. “I have a son who’s an engineer, so he’s a builder in the book. I have a daughter who’s creative and artistic. They mirror the skills and unique abilities of my kids.”

She hasn’t hired an illustrator yet, which will be chosen by the publisher. She was referred to Lucid Books through her husband — its owner is a friend of his, and they’re in an entrepreneurial professional development group.

“Rene is a dedicated advocate for community empowerment and positive change,” Lucid posted on the company Facebook page March 12.

“Drawing inspiration from her own experiences and fueled by a desire to inspire others, Rene embarked on her journey as an author. Her debut book reflects her belief in the power of storytelling to ignite curiosity, foster generosity, and promote teamwork among young readers.”

Making education a priority

Gellerman was driven to write a kids’ book last fall, after United Way staff discussed how to inspire the community to prioritize education.

She was inspired by a 4th grader named Naomi at Madison Elementary in Davenport, who’s on the cover of the United Way “Rise United” brochure. Gellerman has read to her and other students every week at Madison and Fillmore, as part of the volunteer “Read United” program.

“When you hear about the challenges they have faced in their young lives, because they live in communities of poverty and the cyclical, generational situations that families live in,” she said. “When you hear those stories, for me I am so moved and so motivated to get these kids on a different trajectory.”

Many imaginative, fearless young kids already feel they can create epic change, Gellerman said. “I want to empower that and continue to motivate them to be that pathway. As we get older, we lose that belief in ourselves and our ability.”

“Adventures of Kids United” is based in the QC, and the titular bridge is based on the Davenport Skybridge. The kids find their way through the bridge, which takes them to a landing where they meet characters from outer space.

One is Mary Marvelous, who shares with them “in other worlds, people work together and they make their communities better,” Gellerman said. Her spaceship breaks down in the story, and the kids in the book work together to fix it.

“Even at a young age, they can help their neighbors and see how it contributes to the bigger picture,” she said of the book’s lessons. Her characters end up becoming superheroes.

Kids in grade school have unlimited imagination and dreams, regardless of their race or socio-economic background, Gellerman said.

She’s planning to get her book in every 3rd grader’s hands (3,000 in Rock Island and Scott counties), and she will donate all proceeds from their sale to United Way. Gellerman hopes to get sponsors and donors to make that happen for all 3rd graders.

It’s long been a United Way goal to improve reading levels for local 3rd graders, which is a key factor in whether they will go on to graduate high school.

Why not become a teacher?

Gellerman never considered a career in education.

“I so admire teachers — the work they do and the responsibility that they have,” she said. “To the kids, to the future, to the families. I don’t have the patience to do that. It takes such unique and special skills to be that kind of role model. I’m not equipped to do that.

“But I hope I can leave my mark in this community, that I was someone who wore my heart on my sleeve,” Gellerman said. “I demonstrated that commitment to education and to empowering kids.”

In the past five years, she’s given United Way a larger focus on education. About 45 percent of United Way revenue and staff goes to education (other pillars are health and income), including the addition last October of a new vice president for early childhood learning and education.

Cassie Stewart of Muscatine is a former Davenport principal – two years at Madison Elementary and two before that at Pre-K Children’s Villages program.

“She’s doing great. She’s working on rolling out a new program for parent engagement, parent workshops,” Gellerman said.

“I believe that education is the number-one way that we will fight poverty in our community,” Gellerman said. “The more that we can prioritize education as a community, the better our families are gonna do, and I think the more successful our communities will be in attracting businesses and people. People want to live in a place where their kids are going to succeed.”

United Way works to ensure kids have what they need so they can learn while they’re in school. Gellerman wants to fill the resource gap in schools, easing challenges they face.

“Sometimes we get caught up with the problem, this kind of problem being so big that we get paralyzed and what I’m trying to do is look at, we have a big vision but we have to take steps along the way,” she said. “We have to work with that child one on one and that’s a role United Way is moving into.”

Working in partnership

The nonprofit aims to provide resources like books in Title 1 schools that are not as well off, and many students who are struggling the most. United Way partners with other nonprofits — like Big Brothers Big Sisters, Junior Achievement, YMCA, Boys & Girls Club, and Girl Scouts — to fill those needs in schools.

There’s a new United for Schools program at Madison and Washington Elementary in Moline, a concept they’ve been incubating for two years (one year in Moline), Gellerman said. The program works with those nonprofits and schools to fill needs of the kids, and United Way is the liaison to nonprofits, freeing up teachers and administrators to educate. “And we take on the coordination of services,” she said, noting a winter coat drive at schools.

“We are seeing anecdotal improvement in attendance, reading proficiency, behavioral issues, so we are bringing caring adults into the school, working with kids,” Gellerman said. They plan to expand that program to six other schools within three years. “It could be a catalyst for other schools and kids. This is a model that’s being used in other parts of the country and it’s working.”

United Way also recently completed a big book drive, that collected 20,000 books, being given to a variety of organizations to get into the hands of underprivileged kids.

Focusing on Pre-K

In addition to the focus on 2nd to 4th grades, the key to solve that issue is before kindergarten, Gellerman said. That includes getting more kids into pre-K programs, and the better that goes, the more likely they are to be reading at level by 3rd grade, she said.

There are about 1,000 kids who start kindergarten in the QC with no preparation to start school, Gellerman noted. “If we could change that, we will change the trajectory of that generation of kids.”

Pre-K has been a focus of the Women United donor network for years, empowering parents to be their child’s first and best teacher; providing scholarships and subsidies for families who can’t afford child care.

In the last 10 years, Women United has raised about $5 million in that area, Gellerman said. “We have to make this a priority for our community because education starts at birth,” she said. “A child’s brain is 90% developed by the time they’re 5. You think about the public resources we invest in our kid and it doesn’t even start until they’re 5.”

Need for more reading volunteers

Read United always needs more volunteers and the next Day of Caring is April 25, with a strong focus on education, such as reading and other activities, Gellerman said.

Read United is as much about building relationships with students and instilling confidence in their abilities, as it is improving their reading skills, she said.

“Having them meet someone different from their family, and paying attention to them, encouraging them,” Gellerman said, noting she’s gotten great feedback from the kids.

Read United has been seeking 300 more volunteers to pair up with students as reading mentors to help get them back on track in school. Since it began in 2022, the program has been a community-wide effort to address a drop in youth reading proficiency.

“All students deserve success in school, but the reality is, only 55% of Quad Cities third graders are reading at grade level,” said Marci Zogg, United Way’s vice president of community impact. “Read United offers a unique opportunity for community members to be a hero for struggling readers, instilling a lifelong love of reading.”

Volunteers can choose from 16 participating schools in Scott and Rock Island counties and volunteer in 30-minute weekly blocks at a time during school hours that line up with their schedules for the rest of the school year. Click here to learn more about becoming a reading volunteer with Read United.

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