STM had a fantastic time working with Daisy Troop #3103 making monster stuffies on May 6, 2019. The Daisies did an amazing job making creatures with incredible details including bows, eyelashes, ears, whiskers, and braided hair. Their wonderful creations will be stuffed and sewn up and once finished will be donated to the The Children’s Inn at NIH Thoughtful Treasures Program which places a small gift in each patient’s mailbox for each day of their stay. The Daisies also donated brand new books for our Books for Bedtime literacy program. Thank you Daisies for being so kind and thoughtful! We can’t wait to work with you again next year when you are Brownies! 🙂

STM was really happy to honor a simple request from Diya’s family that she help deliver the monster stuffies that were made at her birthday party in January to Children’s National Medical Center. Diya’s family thought it would be a nice way for her to support her baby brother’s upcoming treatment there. Diya did a wonderful job donating 100 monster stuffes (20 of these were created at her party) to their Surgical Recovery Unit on May 1, 2019. Thank you Diya for taking an active hand in serving others and spreading kindness! We’re proud of you!

A huge thanks to craftylittlemonkey, geekgirl1000100, Averia, anna.wahnsinn, craftADDchick, and my mom for sharing your time and talents to help us make fabric paper which will be cut into bookmarks for our upcoming school-wide distributions of books at Piney Branch ES and Takoma Park ES this June! Thank you my dear friends!

Craftster friends donated hotel toiletries and socks for our bags for the homeless and metal bookmarks at our meetup on April 26-28. Thank you friends for your continued support.

STM had a wonderful opportunity to design some cool souvenir buttons for a Craftster meetup in Asheville, NC this past weekend. Our friends on Craftster have supported us in so many ways and will always have a special place in our hearts. We hope they will treasure this little keepsake as much as we treasure them.

Small Things Matter hosted a snacks/candies table, read books aloud, and gave out new books to the families at Rolling Terrace Elementary School on Sunday, April 21, 2019. Our thanks to our members Adrienna, Brienna, Isaac, Eric, and Lana for their support and for also helping with the Difference Makers Kokua Foods distribution of 2350 lbs of food (produce, grocery, dairy, and bread from Wegmans Germantown, Wegmans Woodmore; whole chicken from KOL Foods; onions, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes from Imperfect Foods) and toys this Easter Sunday.

Our thanks to everyone for all of their support in making Global Youth Service Day #GYSD19 a success. Difference Makers rescued 2500lbs of food from Imperfect Foods, Wegmans, and KOL Foods, brought awareness to the plight of food insecure families, and celebrated the volunteers that make Kokua Foods possible. Special thanks to Mayor Kate Stewart for coming out and helping with the distribution and to Youth Service America and Sodexo Foundation – STOP Hunger for their generous #YSAgrant to Small Things Matter that provided families in need with cotton reusable totes filled with healthy recipes and tees for our volunteers. Small Things Matter will be using our additional funding to purchase shelving and containers to help support a new food pantry at Montgomery Blair High School next year. #youthservice #YouthChangingTheWorld

Our sincere thanks to all of the businesses and individual donors, TPMS, all of our wonderful families and friends, and to our student volunteers who came out to support Difference Makers and Small Things Matter Silent Auction this year. TPMS STEAM Night was a wonderful success with student and scientist presentations, Blue Devil Cafe, planetarium shows, robotics, music and dance, and more. Our thanks for your kindness, generosity, and support. We enjoyed seeing you and can’t wait for next year! Thank you!!!! #kindness

STM worked with the wonderful Daisy Scouts Troop #34111 to decorate and fill reusuable cotton bags with toiletries on April 7, 2019. The Daisies worked hard prior to the event by collecting toothbrushes/toothpaste, soap, shampoo/conditioner, combs, and bath puffs. The bags were gratefully accepted at Interfaith Works Women’s Shelter. Our thanks to Troop leaders Theresa Finney Dumais and Josh Buck for the kind invitation and generous donation to our literacy program. Thank you Daisies! #kindness

STM had fun putting pre-loved books into Little Free Libraries around Takoma Park on April 7, 2019. If you have a Little Free Library that could use some books please let us know. Thanks!