STM received lovely handmade bookmarks from our wonderful friend T. Joy on August 15, 2018. She made these by creating paper fabric and decorated it with layers and layers of torn paper, pattern tissue, netting, ribbons, stamps, paint, ink, and glitter. She then cut them into bookmarks and stitched around the edges before adding tassels. Each one is a little work of art. Thank you so much for supporting our Books for Bedtime Program!!! The kids will be thrilled!
STM was out at Universal Orlando Resort last week continuing to spread kindness by giving out as well as hiding Harry Potter buttons in the Hogwarts castle, Hogsmeade village, Diagon Alley, and the Hogwarts Express. It was so nice making new friends!
STM has been spreading some love out here in Walt Disney World by giving out as well as hiding buttons for kids to find. We’ve hit up all 4 kingdoms this past week: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Lots of happy smiles!!! Stay tuned for next week’s adventure!
STM was honored to play a small part at the graduation of the PreK Vision (blind/visually impaired students) on August 5, 2018 by providing these young graduates with handmade stoles and buttons. Lana designed and sewed 9 pint-sized graduation stoles for them over the course of 2 weeks as well as made buttons. Each button was customized with the student’s name in their favorite color. They were also made with easy to read lettering and high contrast to help the students visualize the words. Their teacher Diana García-Mejia will be adding Braille dots over the tops. Congratulations and best of luck to our little friends!
STM had a great time vending lemonade and Hawaiian shave ice at the Takoma Park Farmers Market on Sunday, July 29, 2018. Our thanks to our kind friends at Nasdaq #goodworks who came out to help us today: Victoria Lacuesta and son Joe and volunteer coordinator Tanya Smigocki. It was another beautiful day at the market…lots of lovely people, fresh fruits and vegetables, music!, and the unveiling of our STM banner! Those smiles say it all! See you next time!
On July 21, 2018 STM came out to serve our famous shave ice at a Taekwondo birthday party. This is one of the many ways that STM raises money to purchase supplies and books. In additon to bringing our Hawaiian shave ice service to your next event, we also host charity crafting parties where we make crafts together that are donated to the charity of your choice. Please keep us in mind for your next get together.
Lana spent the morning visiting the blind/visually impaired preschoolers at Brookhaven Elementary School taught by Diana García-Mejía on July 18, 2018. In this intimate class of eight students, she met students that are fully blind, those that are visually impaired, and that have eyes that function properly but have cognitive processing issues. Various methods were employed to teach these students with varying abilities: braille books for fully blind children, magnifying glasses for visually impaired children, and black boards with shapes for children with cognitive processing disorder to block out distractions and provide visual contrast. Ms.García-Mejía also handed around a toy sailboat after reading a story to the class so that all the students could feel the different textures of the wood and canvas and experience the story in a different way. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet these amazing children and we are looking forward to working on graduation stoles to celebrate their achievements!
STM spent a delightful evening sharing our Books for Bedtime Program with the children at Takoma Park Maryland Library on July 16, 2018. It was a wonderful night! Lana read to some children while others read quietly by themselves or had a parent or guardian read to them at this D.E.A.R. event. Each child was invited to take a book home to keep for their personal library at home. Our thanks to Karen MacPherson for inviting us to share our nonprofit program and to the kind Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library who supplied snacks and drinks for everyone.
STM had a wonderful time vending lemonade and Hawaiian shave ice at the Takoma Park Farmers Market on Sunday, July 15, 2018. The weather was perfect, we were surrounded by lovely vendors and great produce, and beautiful music filled the air. Our thanks to our kind friends at Nasdaq #goodworks who came out to help us today: Evan Harvey and daughter Auden, Eduardo Aponte, Elizabeth Ferpozzi and son Gustavo, and Zahra Asghar, daughter Sadia, and granddaughter Zara and volunteer coordinator Tanya Smigocki. We look forward to having them (and you) join us again on July 29.
Lana had a wonderful time painting rocks and coloring bookmarks with the 1st-4th graders at Community CHEER/Lunch and Learn Program on July 10 &12, 2018. These rocks are part of a Random Act of Kindness Project and will be hidden by the campers all over Takoma Park for others to find and enjoy while the bookmarks will be used at our distributions to encourage reading in underserved youth. 65 books were also donated for Lunch and Learn’s leadership high school campers. We look forward to seeing everyone again next summer.