Beyond Comics donates 500 comic books to STM on October 10, 2018

STM extends its heartfelt thanks to John/Beyond Comics for their generous donation of 500 comic books (X-Men, Hulk, Avengers, Superman, Spider Woman, Batman, She Hulk, Marvel Girl, Green Arrow) on October 10, 2018 for our Books for Bedtime literacy program. #kindness

“The world is full of exceptional people. The people in the world who do kindness, or search for the truth despite their lives being at risk. The engineers, the teachers, the doctors, and adoptive parents, the scholars and the firemen, and yes, the journalists. People who risk everything for the sake of others and those who simply try to help those whose needs be greater than their own. Those people inspire me, not the other way around.”
-Superman

STM at Kokua Foods on October 7, 2018

Small Things Matter gave out new books to the children at Difference Makers Kokua Foods distribution at Takoma Park Middle School on October 7, 2018 from 12:30-1:30pm. We are glad that these books are in wonderful homes!

New Volunteer Opportunity: Scarves for the Homeless on October 24 & 25

Small Things Matter and Difference Makers are joining forces once again to help the homeless in our community. Please join us in making fleece scarves for the homeless at Takoma Park Middle School on October 24 & 25 from 5-7pm. SSL hours available to middle school and high school. If you’re interested please drop us a line at thesmallthingsmatter.org or sign up at Montgomery County Volunteer Center. Small Things Matter thanks MCVC for their generous grant which helped offset most of the cost for this event.

STM Books for Bedtime at Kokua Foods Distributions, October 7, 2018

Small Things Matter is partnering for a second year with Difference Makers Kokua Foods Program to share our literacy program Books for Bedtime at Takoma Park MS and Rolling Terrace ES on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month, respectively. STM will host a snack table where our members will read books to the younger children and will give out brand new books to help them develop a love of reading. We welcome donations of brand new books or small monetary donations for our literacy program via our website at http://www.smallthingsmatter.org. All donations are tax-deductible. Thanks! 🙂

STM’s Books for Bedtime Program at TPES PTA Meeting, October 2, 2018

STM members Lana, Amelia, and Serenity ran our Books for Bedtime Program during the Takoma Park Elementary School PTA meeting on October 2, 2018. The children listened to a Dr. Seuss story read by Amelia and then were asked to create a fantastical creature of their own and write a few words/sentences about it. STM went around offering help and encouragement when needed. The children did a great job of making wonderful stories about their creatures. What imaginations! A few of the older children worked on kindness rocks to abandon as a Random Acts of Kindness. STM will be back every other month to share our program at TPES. Our thanks to Lia Salza and Meg McDonald for the kind introduction to the TPES families. We can’t wait to see everyone again in December!

STM Officially Able to Award SSL Hours, September 26, 2018

STM spent a couple of hours with the lovely folks at Montgomery County Volunteer Center (https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/volunteercenter/) learning how to navigate their website and the rules for awarding SSL hours on September 26, 2018. I am proud to announce that at the completion of the course we received our little graduation cap banner. The cap signifies that Small Things Matter is now officially approved to give out SSL hours to our middle school and high school volunteers! Hurrah!
We have 2 upcoming Community Service Week opportunities posted on the MCVC site to make fleece scarves for the homeless on October 24 and October 25!  Just search for Small Things Matter or fleece scarves to get more details.

STM’s First School-wide Distribution of Books at RTES, September 24, 2018

Small Things Matter had a wonderful time giving out free books to our friends at Rolling Terrace Elementary School on September 24, 2018. Seeing all those eyes light up when they saw the books made our day! This was our first school-wide distribution of new books that was made possibly by you, our generous donors and partners. Our thanks to all the wonderful teachers and staff at RTES, especially Michelle Esema, Mary Araghi, and Mary Carter for all their help with our visit. We had a delightful time meeting everyone and we enjoyed reading to your Head Start class! STM would also like to thank our friend and partner Steve Whitney/HOOPOE BOOKS, Share Literacy, Books for Afghanistan, Books for Pakistan for their generous donation of the “Man and the Fox” books for all the 1st graders and the bilingual Spanish/English “Fatima the Spinner and the Tent” for all the 2nd and 3rd graders. Steve spent the day with sharing reflections on the importance of reading and words of encouragement to the children and also read the “Man and the Fox” to one of the 1st grade classes. We would also like to thank Aimee Oberndorfer Le and Rona Sue London/The Ivy Bookshop for all the wonderful books they provided for the preK, K, 4th, and 5th grade classes. We are also thankful for all of you who have made financial contributions and supported our lemonade stands which allowed us to purchase additional books needed for this distribution. And lastly we would like to thank everyone who made and colored bookmarks for this event with a special shout out to the Difference Makers Teen Ambassadors who made some AMAZING fabric paper bookmarks for us. Thank you friends! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Small Things Matter at KIDfest, September 23, 2018

Woohoo! We had a fantastic time crafting monster stuffies at KID Museum #kidfest on September 23, 2018. In spite of the rain tons of people came out to enjoy all the wonderful exhibits, talks, and hands on activities. Thanks everyone for coming out to craft stuffies for Children’s National Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Special thanks to our amazing STM members and to Difference Makers for their wonderful support and help!

Buttons, Buttons, Buttons! September 19, 2018

STM filled an order for one inch buttons on September 19, 2018. We hope the students at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School enjoy them.
Button sales are one of the many ways that STM raises funds for our projects. We design custom button too so keep us in mind for your next event. No order is too small and 100% satisfaction is guaranteed.