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!

STM and partners Difference Makers and B’nai Tzedek Potomac celebrated #GoodDeedsDay on Sunday, April 7, 2019 by making “Be Your Own Author” kits. Difference Makers and Small Things Matter assembled hundreds of booklets (comics, lined, blank) for meet the needs of children ages 0-100. Small Things Matter and B’nai Tzedek put together complete kits each containing 2 booklets, crayons/colored pencils, pencil/eraser, a bookmark and fun writing prompts!
Our thanks to J-Serve and to our wonderful partners for their kind support. Our kits will be shared with children in need at Rolling Terrace Elementary and The Children’s Inn at NIH in the coming weeks. #jserve2019 #kindness

Come out to bid on many wonderful items from businesses and individuals. Items include SAT services, car washes, theatre tickets, handmade jewelry, homemade baked items, handbags, Lego, and more. Over 200 items! All proceeds will be used to fund Small Things Matter and Difference Makers community projects. It’s a fun way to do good in our community so please join in!

Our thanks to the amazing members of USC Circle K International, a student run service organization at University of Southern California for making bookmarks and paintings for our literacy program and crafting for charity program respectively. The paintings will be shared with our friends at the The Children’s Inn at NIH.

STM read stories, played games, and made brain helmets with students whose parents were attending the TPES PTA meeting on April 2, 2019. STM was happy to have 2 volunteer readers that joined in the fun of reading aloud to the rest of the children. We had a wonderful time and can’t wait to see everyone again in June!

STM had a wonderful time making brain helmets and running a fruit fly exhibit at the East Silver Spring Elementary STEM Night on March 28, 2019. Students learned about the different parts and functions of the brain and made helmets to take home. Students also learned about the life cycle of the fruit fly and worked together to identify eye and wing mutations. Our thanks to teachers Richard Weerts, Kaitlyn Johnson, and Jennifer Hoy for putting this amazing event together. Thanks also to Leif Benner and Brian Oliver for supplying us with the fruit flies and Bryan Goehring for loaning us the dissecting microscopes.

Our thanks to Larry Silverman at S&A Beads for his generous donation of beads and tools on March 19, 2019 for our Crafting for Charity Program. His donation included African beads, glass beads, semiprecious stones, and other great beads. The kids will have fun crafting with these wonderful items! Thank you!