That was the question and of course the answer was yes.  Erin and I were relaxing in Wilson on Friday morning when we got a call asking if we could do an assembly at a school in Silver Spring, Maryland that afternoon.  We realized that we couldn’t drive fast enough to get there that day so we rescheduled for Monday.  The only problem was that Erin had to fly back to Seattle on Sunday night for a memorial service.  Yikes!  Could I do it alone?  Crazily I had decided to go ahead, but then was saved by some wonderful people in Rockville, MD.  My sister-in-law helped me scavenge books.  My brother-in-law helped carry the books.  My niece and nephews helped sort the books.  I was already feeling so supported in my mission and then came the frosting on the cake.  They had family friends who dropped by with a box of books for the Lit Lab.  When these friends found out I needed extra hands to do two assemblies, the whole family came came to my rescue.  The two daughters joined my niece to be part of the show.  Their mother organized the give-away of books and their father helped unload the Lit Lab and then took photos and video for me.  It really does take a village.  Thank you, Elletts and Piepols!

While in Wilson, we met with Dr. Michael Bell, the executive director of the St. John Community Development Corporation.  Dr. Bell is passionate about revitalizing a neighborhood in Wilson where the majority of families fall below the poverty line.  As part of their holistic approach to improving the health and well- being of community members, they created the Save-A-Youth program which provides summer camp to over 1,000 kids and daily afterschool tutoring to about 300 K-8 students. We left a few boxes of books for their library and talked about ways the Lit Lab might contribute to their programs in the future. It was an inspiring hour.

We also took a few boxes of books to the Wilson Spot, which is a non-profit group that aims to Share Positive Outcomes Together for kids and their families in Wilson.  As part of their mission, they offer afterschool acivities and tutoring, sports activities, leadership programs and summer camp.  We hope to work with them in the future to support their efforts to improve literacy.

As you can probably guess, we hope to make many trips to Wilson.  Thank you, Claire and Roddy Colcord

In June the Little Lib Lab made its first stop at the Hattie Daniels Day Care Center.  We were warmly welcomed at this wonderful facility that serves children from babies in day care to children who come for after school care.  Once again we were reminded of the importance of early literacy.

Don’t you love our new vehicle?  When we dreamed it up, I called it the baby Lit Lab, but now we are calling it the Little Lit Lab.  How about L cubed for a fun name?  We added the Little Lit Lab to our fleet so Erin could have a Lit Lab vehicle in Seattle and I could have one in Winter Park.  As much as we loved our cross country trip, we realized that it is not realistic to make that our model.  We decided that a better plan would be to work from two locations, especially because we live so far apart.  The Lit Lab adventures grows ….

Erin came to Winter Park in April and we made a visit to the Winter Park Day Nursery, a 501(c)(3) organization that provides affordable, high-quality early childhood education to children in the Winter Park area. Fees are based on family income and 89% of the students come from low income families. I volunteered at this school and was always impressed by the way they support the families as well as the children. They have a food pantry and a clothes closet. Once a week families can purchase low-cost healthy meals to take home. They welcome volunteers and encourage community involvement. We were invited into all the classrooms, even the two-year-olds. It was a fun change of pace to be with such young students.  Two-year-olds think our green hair is normal and our puppets are real!

My mom introduced me to this wonderful group of senior citizens who give their time, talents and money to support the Hope Fund of Bethune Park, a non-profit organization that provides educational and cultural oportunities for at-risk children in Wimauma, Florida.  I brought the Lit Lab to their afterschool tutoring and mentoring program and loved the way these seniors support literacy with their energy, enthusiasm and love for young people.  I would love to see a similar program in every city I visit!  You can see more photos of my visit on their website.  See if you can spot my mom and dad!

I was excited to be invited to the Fern Creek Elementary School in Orlando to be part of a school carnival last February.  We had taken the Lit Lab to a community festival in Detroit in October so I had a few literacy games already prepared: Toss a Ball into Your Favorite Reading Genre; Find all the Bookworms on the Lit Lab; Make a Reading Stick; Feed Bob the Bookbot a Book; Making a Favorite Book Quilt.  My favorite activity bar none is the  Book Quilt.  Each child made a paper square that had the name of a favorite book, a favorite book topic or a drawing from a favorite book.  I taped the squares together as they were finished so the quilt grew as the day went along.  It was a fun way to engage the kids in conversations about books and a conversation starter for kids and parents as well.  Before I do another carnival, I hope to improve the technique for creating the quilt.  My current idea is to tape the paper squares onto a cheap plastic tablecloth that is taped onto a heavy plastic shower curtain. The plastic tablecloth will provide a colorful frame and make it easier to put up the squares quickly.  The shower curtain will provide weight so the quilt hangs down instead of blowing in the wind, plus the shower curtain loops will make it easier to hang on the pole.  Let me know if you have a better idea.

My first solo visit was at the Mentoring for Academic Progress program at the South Street Ministry in Orlando.  MAP is an afterschool program for students in grades K-5 who are bused from a nearby elementary school.  Even though the group was small, it was challenging because the kids ranged in age from kindergarten to fifth grade. The other challenge was working with a small group in a large room – quite different from working with students who sit in orderly rows of desks. Challenges aside, what fun I had back in my role as Professor Plot. I hadn’t really realized how much I missed using my creative wits to draw kids into the wonderful world of books. It felt great to be back in the saddle!

What have we been doing since the end of our tour last October? We took time off from the Lit Lab adventure for Erin’s wedding. Erin went back to Seattle to start her student teaching and I kept the Lit Lab in Florida.  It was the start of our new Lit Lab phase. During the school year, Erin will be Professor Page in Seattle and I will be Professor Plot in Orlando.  In the summer, we will hopefully find time to take a Lit Lab trip together. It wasn’t easy to start working alone, but I learned that with planning and practice, it is possible.  In the coming weeks, I will share photos and stories of my Florida Lit Lab adventures. I will also try to give a glimpse into our hopes for the future.