Why I Serve: Bringing Smiles

My colleague, friends and family have long since accepted that many nights I have a “Junior League thing”—especially when they see the spark that the Junior League of Washington (JLW) has added to my life since moving to D.C. nearly 8 years ago. Raised by a mother who brings new meaning to the term ‘do gooder’, a grandmother who (even into her 80s) volunteers at the town library, and later dozens of teachers at my prep school who ignited a passion for education and service in me, the JLW was the perfect organization for me to join.

Simply put, I volunteer because I love smiles. I love to smile, love to see others smile, and love to make people smile—especially those who maybe do not have as many things about which to ‘smile’. This year, I’ve had the pure pleasure of serving as the JLW’s Community Affairs Council and in that role, I’ve had the chance to be a bit of a smile fairy.

In September, over 550 of you smiled to the over 200,000 National Book Festival goers as they stood in line to meet their favorite authors, played in the PBS Kids tent, or rocked out to one of the story time bands in the Target Family Pavilion.

JLW Volunteers at the National Book Fest

Since June 2012, through joint-leadership by the Community Affairs Council and Ways and Means Council, JLW’s Resolution Read 100,000 books project has distributed nearly 50,000 books to D.C. area kids – resulting in way more than 50,000 smiles.

This fall, the Community Affairs Council, via the Targeted Grants and Volunteer Resources Committee, gave out three new grants to D.C. non-profits working to make illiteracy an issue of the past – Jubilee Jumpstart, Little Lights Urban Ministry, and Hope House, DC – resulting in many, many more smiles.

On Saturday, March 2, the Community Event Planning Committee is hosting another ‘smile-maker’ event – the free Annual Kids in the Kitchen children’s health, nutrition and fitness fair—at the YMCA National Capital (1711 Rhode Island Avenue NW) from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. At Kids in the Kitchen, children of all ages will learn how to eat smart and make healthy lifestyle choices through exciting hands-on games and demonstrations, energizing games and delicious healthy snacks. This will be my fifth Kids in the Kitchen event and I can’t wait to strap on my apron and ‘get healthy’ with the nearly 400 kids expected for Saturday’s event. 

If tasty treats and yoga-for-kids don’t get you smiling, a new partnership between the JLW, Association of Junior League International, and Colgate’s Bright Smiles Bright Futures Campaign surely will. Colgate’s Campaign, along with their Mobile Dental Van will be joining this year’s Kids in the Kitchen to provide FREE dental screenings to kids ages 1 to 12, along with a toothbrush, games and information on oral hygiene, and a ‘report card’ on their smile. As one of seven Junior Leagues selected by AJLI to partner with Colgate and the Bright Smiles Bright Futures Campaign, we are especially excited to have the van on Saturday and at Kids in the Kitchen and other JLW events in the next few months, including D.C.’s largest homeless shelter, D.C. General.

I hope to see you all on Saturday at Kids in the Kitchen, at an upcoming Resolution Read book distributions and read-aloud sessions, or other JLW events soon – I’ll be one with the big smile.

Carly Susan Rockstroh
Community Affairs Council Director

The JLW Awards Opportunity Grant to Hope House DC

The Junior League of Washington (JLW) is pleased to announce Hope House DC as the third of three organizations the JLW has awarded an opportunity grant to this fall. Opportunity grants are grants for less than $1,000 and are awarded to community organizations that are addressing one of the following complex areas of the JLW’s narrowed children’s reading literacy focus (1) lack of books in the home; (2) lack of books and resources in the school; and/or (3) reading out loud to children ages 0 – 5.

Hope House DC was founded in 1998 after the closing of the District of Columbia's Lorton Correctional Complex sent thousands of D.C. inmates to federal correctional facilities across the country. Currently more than 8,000 District inmates, most with families in the greater D.C. metropolitan area, are imprisoned in more than 50 facilities as far away as California. The mission of Hope House DC is to (a) strengthen families by improving the bonds between children and their fathers imprisoned far from home; (b) reduce the isolation, stigma, shame and risk these families experience when fathers are imprisoned; and (c) raise public awareness about this most at-risk population.

One of the ways Hope House DC accomplishes the mission is through the “Father to Child Reading Program”, which promotes family literacy by recording dads reading to their kids, then sending the book and recording home to the children - a unique approach to the standard family literacy model of parents and children reading together. The readings build relationships between separated children and fathers and use their desire for a relationship to motivate them to keep reading together.

The Reading Program is carried out by two Hope House staff and a small number of local contractors who visit prisons regularly with an array of children’s books and audio or video recording equipment. Fathers choose a book from the collection. After spending time practicing, fathers read the books aloud as their voice is recorded. Each father prefaces and closes his reading with a personal message to his child. The signed book and tape are taken out of the prison by Hope House staff and mailed home to the child of the inmate, at no cost to the inmate or his family.

Each year, Hope House DC records and distributes at least 2,000 books to children with fathers in prison. As books typically go to families with more than one child, about 3,000 children each year are encouraged and excited to read more often because they have received book recordings from their fathers. 

Since the program’s inception, Hope House DC has used audio tapes to record fathers reading to their children, with video recordings being the rare exception. It has become difficult to find audio tapes, and the children the organization serves tends to have more access to CD players.

The $500 opportunity grant from the JLW will purchase four Sony digital recorders that will allow the organization to make CDs instead of audio tapes. The balance will go towards the purchase of blank CDs.

In the spring, the JLW will be awarding additional opportunity grants to community organizations, with a deadline of February 1 for submission of materials. Additional information can be found online.  If you have questions about the opportunity grants or want additional information, please contact Alicia Lee, chair of the Targeted Grants and Volunteer Resources Committee at grantsandvolunteers@jlw.org.

Alicia Lee

Chair, Targeted Grants and Volunteer Resources Committee