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.

Lana donated 81 fabric patchwork bookmarks and 75 wish bracelets made by her Craftster Aunties Kathy and Michelle, respectively on July 6, 218 to the The Children’s Inn at NIH‘s Thoughtful Treasures Program. We know these little goodies will brighten the day of these children. Thank you aunties!

STM’s focus is to help children in need and recently we met Diana García-Mejía who teaches blind/visually impaired preschoolers at Brookhaven ES. Lana delivered different types of GAK to her for her summer camp. Lana varied the consistency of the GAK and made some with felt balls added to them so that they could enjoy different sensory experiences. We look forward to continuing to work with this dedicated teacher and her amazing students.

Kudos to all the wonderful kids who pledged to be kind a part of our “Be A Superhero” challenge today at the Takoma Park Independence Day Parade! There were so many great reactions to this challenge: one child immediately turned to his friend and hugged him as his gesture of kindness, another promised to be nice to her little brother, and another child declared that his father was his hero! It was great to see how thoughtful and seriously the kids took the challenge. So proud of them!!!

Jamie, Leela, and Lana had a great time sharing about STM with our community at the Takoma Park Farmers Market on Sunday, July 1, 2018. Thanks to all of you who generously donated to support our efforts to empower children to help other children in need! Hope you enjoyed the lemonade! It was a scorcher!

STM served up Hawaiian shave ice to our friends at The Children’s Inn at NIH for their INNcredible Spy Summer Camp Kickoff Party on June 18, 2018. The children enjoyed an afternoon filled with scavenger hunts, invisible ink messages, orbeez dig for sea creatures, fingerprint cookie decorating, dancing, and fun treats. We had a wonderful time seeing our friends again and were happy to be a part of this special event!

Small Things Matter gave out new books to the families at Rolling Terrace Elementary School on June 17, 2018 at Difference Makers Kokua Foods distribution program.

Our thanks to Velocity of Books for inviting us to take some of their books on June 16, 2018. We picked up over 30 books! We will use these gently read books to help fill the Little Free Libraries in our community.