Woohoo! Please welcome STM Brooklyn! Club members Victoria, Anna, Keanu, and Jack hosted a Valentine’s Day Kindness Event at PS102 Bay View School. Everyone in the entire school got to spin the prize wheel and received either a pencil, eraser, plush toy, t-shirt, or bracelet. Way to make your debut and spread some love this Valentine’s Day!
Our thanks to Silver Spring Cares for hosting their 2nd Annual Galentine’s Day event at the Astro Lab Brewing on February 13, 2020. Their event showcased a few of the local nonprofits and gave people a chance to help support them by making various things: Shepherd’s Table (decorating Valentine’s Day cookies), Silver Spring Village (making Valentine’s Day cards), Happy Little Art Studio LLC (painting kindness rocks), Charles Koiner Center for Urban Farming (making labels for plants), and Small Things Matter (creating bookmarks). We are very grateful to Silver Spring Cares/Heather Foley and Liz Brent for bringing us all together. It was a beautiful night!
STM had a wonderful time making little love bugs at the TPSS Co-op on Wednesday, February 12. It was great seeing all the creativity! Our thanks to our members Amaranth, Ocean, and Brigitte for leading the activity and to Leandra Nichola/Co-op for hosting us and providing yummy and healthy treats for everyone. Hope everyone has fun spreading a little love today. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Our thanks to the student group AGAPE, who crafted these lovely monster stuffies for our Crafting for Charity program. We love all the different personalities!!!
Our deepest thanks to Winston Churchill High School (Potomac, Maryland) Ambassadors and Marie Umali Gasaway, Assistant Principal for hosting a book drive for us during MLK Day. Thank you for getting your whole school involved in serving those in need!
Every year the Takoma Foundation recognizes folks in Greater Takoma (i.e., Takoma Park and the immediately adjacent neighborhoods) who strive to serve our community in a variety of ways, seen and behind the scenes. This year we have 11 categories to honor those who provide outstanding community service.
Congratulations to Seth Grimes and Steve Whitney (Neighborhood Volunteer) and others for being included in the nominations for Azalea Awards. Azalea Award voting will close at midnight on Thursday, February 20th. Winners in each category (11) will be announced at 3:00 pm on Sunday, February 23, at the Historic Takoma Office, Takoma Junction.
Please log on https://www.takomafoundation.org/events/
azalea-awards-ballot. Your vote counts. Everyone is a winner.
Our thanks to Taylor Dibbert for our wonderful feature in the February issue of the Takoma Park Newsletter. https://takomaparkmd.gov/news/newsletter/
Our thanks to Barnes & Noble Tysons Corner for hosting a book fair for us on Saturday, February 8, 2020. Mete and Lana had a wonderful time sharing our club’s mission and making bookmarks with the kids. Our thanks to Barnes & Noble Tysons Corner giving us the chance to raise money for our program and for their generous donation of books and DVDs. We are grateful for your continued support!
Our thanks to Washington Episcopal School for helping us make 75 fabric paper bookmarks and 10 handdrawn bookmarks, and for hosting a wonderful book drive to support our Books for Bedtime Program which provides brand new books to children in need on Friday, February 7, 2020. Our thanks to Tiffney Brockway, Registrar & Assistant to Middle School Director for coordinating our visit. We had a wonderful time being part of your First Friday celebration where your students also made snack bags and sandwiches for Bethesda Cares, drew Valentine’s Day cards for Children’s hospital, made blankets for animal shelters, and spent time with the elderly at Sunrise Village. Kudos to all of you for your kindness.
STM Kokua Foods distributed 10,230 lbs of fresh produce, grocery, dairy, bread, frozen foods, canned goods and other nonperishable items to food insecure families this January serving students at Takoma Park ES, Piney Branch ES, Rolling Terrace ES, Wheaton Woods ES, Takoma Park MS, and Montgomery Blair HS. We are grateful to our food partners at Wegmans Germantown, Wegmans Woodmore, Imperfect Foods, TPSS Co-op, KOL Foods, U-Haul Moving & Storage for donating the use of their truck, The Nugent family for their weekly donation of a grocery bag of nonperishable foods, Margie Billian for her donation of fleece gloves, The Elinoff family, The Degasperis family, and AmeriCorps The Choice Program at UMBC for volunteering with us. Special thanks to our distribution partner Bryan Goehring & Difference Makers/TPMS, and site managers Doris Duarte /Hampshire Tower Apts and Helen Winder/WWES. Thanks also to our STM members (Lana, Jacob, Abigail, Jacinto, Luis, Yeni, and Gabriel) for helping with the distribution as well as giving out new books at TPMS and RTES, student volunteers (Yacouba and Hadrian), and adult volunteers (WWES Principal Daman Harris, Wendy Kent, Jeff Diamante, Seth Grimes, Stephen Whitney, Ken Allen, Jim Douglas, Sarah Stella, Luis Almar, Thomas Jacob, Wei Li, Leandra Nichola, Taylor Dibbert, Sawa Kamara, Aurelie Bush, Kevin Buchanan, Yajaira Garay, Enrique Garay, Pia Acol, Iris Antezana, Mr. Seid, Ms. Perez, Ms. Bonilla, Mr. Kassaye, Anthony Murray, Jill Nicolas, Kia Robinson, Margaret Sutton, Robin Hernandez, and John Anderson) for their tireless dedication and hard work.
If you are interested in volunteering us please contact us! www.smallthingsmatter.org