Youth and their families honored first responders with handmade cards, handmade buttons, baked goods, handcream, chapstick, pens, and other items to thank them for their service in remembrance of 9/11. Our thanks to our partners at Youth Service America and AmeriCorps for their We Serve to Remember grant. Our thanks to our teen volunteers and to the hundreds of children and their families who stopped by to make a card or a button today at the Takoma Park Folk Festival (TPFF)! The baskets were delivered to the Takoma Park Police Department, TPSS Co-op, Holy Cross Hospital, Shady Grove Hospital, Police Dept Rockville, Rockville Volunteer Fire Department, Holy Cross, Germantown Hospital, Police Dept Germantown, Germantown Volunteer Fire Department! Our thanks to Lana for writing the grant and organizing and our wonderful teens Alexis, Sahana, Maria, Marco, Ivan, Seneca, Colin, Annie, Andrii, Olivia, Wali, Louisa, Danna, Maxwell, James, Lesu, Ezera, Anyunwiya, Alexis, Diya, Kalina, Maliam Vivian, Nuala, Ike, Andy, Paula, Eric, Daniel, Samantha, Zuzu, Kristin, Edward, Alvin, Jim, Lina, Mira, Leah, Joel, Adem, Aliyah, Claire, Nora, Angela, Izzy, May, and Mary for helping the kids today and our bakers Thomas, Sophia, Sahana, Sid, and Alexis!

Thank you everyone for making a difference in the life of a student with your kind contributions of money, school supplies, and time. We surpassed our goals this year and were able to help many more students in need because of you. Thank you!!!

Our thanks to Latin American Youth Center and @Women In Me Initiative for the kind invite to their Empower Youth Resource Fair. We enjoyed meeting all the other groups and all the families. We signed up many families to come to our community-wide food distribution and shared black beans, hygiene kits, and household cleaning kits with them today. Thanks to STM teens Zuzu, Amelia, Eddie, Aria, and Hannah for running our booth!

Great day of service to welcome newcomers to our community. Our thanks to our team Chris Owen, Richard Sawyer, Katie Nolfi, sock donations from Bombas, pokemon toy donations from Pokémon, Capital Area Food Bank, organizers Community Engagement & Consultation Group @ceandcg / Dr. Anita & Shaun King, and partners We Do Seva/Aman Shergill, Continuum Healthcare Network Telemedicine Program/ Jhennie Libongco-Barbour, Black Physicians Healthcare Network/Robin Little, DHHS, Mobile Med, and MANNA FoodBank!

Our deepest thanks to our wonderful partners for their generous donations of fresh produce. Thank you to Imperfect Foods, Wegmans, Trader Joe’s, Purple Mountain Organics, Fenton Street Community Garden, King Street Community Garden, and Harvestshare! Our families are eating healthier and happier thanks to your kindness!

Small Things Matter had a wonderful time teaching art classes for Lunch and Learn, a free summer camp for underserved children in Takoma Park. Our teen members taught classes on origami, jewelry, clay and more to the delight of the campers. The students also received educational instruction in math and reading through this program. Our thanks to our students who provided the campers with chicken, turkey, and PB&J sandwiches. Teamwork makes the dream work. We look forward to next year’s camp!

Small Things Matter is thrilled to be starting up our backpack drive. Last year we gave away over 1600 brand new backpacks filled with school supplies to the families we serve in Takoma Park, Silver Spring, and Rockville. Please donate supplies at our various collection sites: Takoma Park Seventh Day Adventist Church, Tabletop, Pure Barre in Rockville, Old Takoma Ace Hardware, Silver Spring Ace Hardware, Color & Design by Margie Billian, and at our office at 14516 Bauer Drive, Rockville. Small monetary donations can also be made via our website www.smallthingsmatter (Venmo, Paypal, or Check).

Our thanks to our amazing sponsors (Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Continuum Healthcare Network Telemedicine Program, Margie Billian Colour & Design, GFWC Metropolitan Community Club of Montgomery County, APHL Association of Public Health Laboratories, Sts Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Washington DC, WP Buffs, Target – Rockville, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Monitor Group, MassMutual), our collection partners (Tabletopdc, Old Takoma Ace Hardware, Silver Spring Ace Hardware, The Takoma Park Seventh-day Adventist Church, Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, Sandy Spring Museum, Pure Barre Rockville), and our amazing community for your support!

Happy 4th of July! We had a blast in the TP 4th of July Parade! So great seeing everyone! A huge thanks to the Takoma Park Independence Day Celebration committee and our amazing team: Adam, Amaranth, Ameera, Annie, Avital, Breonna, Caden, Cameron, Carolina, Chris, Chris, Diego, Diya, Dominique, Ethan, Eueal, Fikir, Firdous, Giselle, Helene, John, Kamila, Ken, Kidus, Lana, Damien, Leandra, Les, Lianna, Lili, Liya, Madeleine, Mahouli, Max, Mia , Mikal, Neil, Ocean, Quynh, Rox, Salah, Sam, Sanjay, Santiago, Sela, Selah, Sophia, Surasit, Tamar, Tausha, Timothy, Trystan, Tyler, Ved, Victoria, Will, Zenabe!

Small Things Matter was celebrated by Continuum Heathcare Network at their AAPI/Juneteenth Celebration. Our thanks to them for honoring Takoma Park Mayor Talisha Searcy, Doris Duarte, Alfreda Tanner, Jackie Frazier, Nafkote Dana, and Leon Crowell, Sr. in honor of Juneteenth and Lana Anderson/Small Things Matter, GOCI Director Christina Poy, Dr. Hyunsook Choi, Mayur Mody/ American Diversity Group, Thơ Trần/ Vietnamese American Services, Inc. – VAS, Yang Yu, and Thai Nguyen in honor of AAPI Heritage Month!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Juneteenth celebration on June 19, 2024 from noon – 6pm at the Lee Jordan Field behind Takoma Park Middle School. We had a very successful health fair where we distributed our healthy eating tips (booklet), administered FREE mental health screening with Dr. Yeside Ojo & Dr. N’Dama Bamba, and FREE high blood pressure screening with Dr. Esther Saggurthi & Lana Anderson, hosted a crafting table, and gave out fresh fruit.