SMILE

I founded the SMILE program for the children in my low income neighborhood, Sycamore Meadows, along with another parent, Sentra. SMILE stands for Sycamore Meadows Introducing Literacy Engagement and is a reading group that I do at my house every other Wednesday where the children ages 2-8 are invited to eat a healthy snack along with my children and listen to a story. We do sight words, ask questions about the book and the children each get to pick out a book from the donated book shelf to take home with them. There are usually between 15-20 kids at every session. I track attendance each time (name and their age - and when they come 4 times they get to pick a prize from the treasure chest). If they read a book to the group then they automatically get to pick a prize and they get a Superstar Reader certificate.

Funded by Ann Arbor, MI (February 2017)