About Us
NATURAL LEARNING
(Silent Video)
Our children's book team works to raise reading rates and make healthy concern for the planet a natural part of daily life.
Editor
Award-winning Australian author Graeme Lofts deserves first-place mention for his final edits of our books. This former educator of Science and Physics penned numerous text books. He currently writes non-fiction scientific and business books. Graeme promoted adding facts to this website about the iconic animals in the children's books. Facts build on the fascinating subject matter and calm blind fears about wildlife.
Marketing Guru
Vice President Abby Quigg brings networking power to the children's book team. This founding director of the board of Little Ray Children’s Books is an experienced event hosting planner, realtor and business owner. She will help plan Waffles for Sharks charitable events to spread awareness about the missions of this organization. Abby Quigg is an alum of the University of Kentucky.
Overall Responsibility
Retired mental-health attorney Terry Verduin (pen name V. R. Duin) works to improve childhood mental health with fun characters. She was a certified SCUBA diver. Her content and trademarks are licensed to Little Ray Children’s Books. Her books are in our Bookstore. She serves as President and Director of daily operations, planning, fundraising and in the administration of this website and of the Goopy Ghost content hub.
Financial Officer
Engineer Dick Verduin serves as Treasurer and Director. This founding director is responsible for overseeing, managing, reconciling and accounting for the financial affairs of this charity. He is not related to Terry Verduin by blood or by marriage. Dick Verduin is a graduate of Northwestern University. He also performs part-time engineering work involving environmental systems and construction permits.
Volunteer Expert
Amie Holton brings 21 years of entrepreneurship and 12 years of volunteer service at schools and sporting events to the board of Little Ray Children’s Books. Her executive skill & experience in child welfare and education qualified her to serve as Secretary of our board. Amie provided prior service to the board with the recruitment of volunteers. Her networks and connections contribute to our leadership and management. Amie has assisted our operations since our founding.
Advisory Board
Pilar Jiménez Romero is a skilled scientist, educator and marketer. Her expertise with the teaching and learning of foreign languages brings welcome insights to our board. Pilar’s expertise with marketing is helpful to the use of our rhyming books for teaching English as a second language in U.S. schools with an immigrant student population. Pilar speaks, reads and writes multiple languages. We are confident that her experience and expertise will help us elevate our educational presence.
Thank You, Google.com
We are grateful to Google.com for our in-kind search Ad Grant, which provides our nonprofit with almost $10,000 per month in advertising. Our search ads on Google.com drive about 80% of our website traffic. We also appreciate our product listings in Google Merchant Center, where shoppers discover, explore, and buy products. Google Analytics gives us valuable website metrics.
Thank You, Mentors!
SCORE provides one-on-one nonprofit consulting services at no charge. The mentorship meetings are confidential. These meetings are conveniently scheduled. They can be conducted by phone, email or in-person in Jacksonville, Florida. Our board president attends SCORE workshops about diverse, business-oriented subjects. SCORE resources empower our board to make the best decisions for our nonprofit, for our donors and for our customers.
Thank You, Canva!
We are grateful to Canva for their Nonprofits program. Thanks to this program, our nonprofit receives all of the features of Canva Pro at no cost. This valuable benefit enables our organization to create high-quality visuals for everything from social media to reports and presentations. Projects that we are creating, thanks to Canva, are establishing awareness of our children’s book brand characters and of our missions.
Help Wanted
We seek a commission-only sales representative/broker to build a strategic alliance with an entertainment or retail organization for our Goopy Ghost brand.