A book, a film, a Writers Lab, and a Mayor who stayed for the craft
Saturday morning in Roanoke, a room full of children learned the same thing four different ways.
They heard it in a story. They watched it in a film. They wrote about it. Then they cut one out of construction paper.
The thing was a butterfly.
When the morning ended, every child carried one home, along with a book that belongs to them now. That was the whole point, and it is the promise we made back in April.
The Author Was on a Screen. The Children Were in the Room.
The morning opened with a virtual reading of Amara and the Secret World of Butterflies, the newest book in the Amara's Adventures series. Nola D. Oracle read to the children from a screen, and Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb read along with her in the room.
Children notice who shows up. A mayor sitting down to read a picture book out loud, in front of them, says something about how much this is supposed to matter. Nobody had to explain it.
In the story, Amara learns that a butterfly spends most of its life becoming one. It is a big idea for a small audience, and the room took it in.
Then the Lights Went Down
Next came a screening of The Secret Pollinators, the eco-documentary on what butterflies actually do for the planet. It features Jaret C. Daniels of the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.
The story gave the children a butterfly to care about. The film showed them why the rest of us should care too.
Then the Pens Came Out
Sage Love led the Writers Lab.
By then the children had taken in a story and a film. The Writers Lab handed the pencil to them. Sage asked the questions, and the answers went down on paper, some of them in handwriting still learning how to hold a line.
Roanoke is now the fourth city where a Writers Lab has put a pencil in a child's hand, after Ocala, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine.
And Then Everyone Made a Butterfly
The butterfly craft was the last piece, and it is where the day loosened up.
Children cut and folded and glued. Families worked alongside them. Mayor Cobb pulled up a chair and made one too, an hour after his part of the program had ended.
By the end of the morning, the room was loud in the best way.
What Went Home, and Where Else It Went
Every child who came left with a literacy bundle. A copy of the book, a bookmark, a coloring sheet, a sticker, and a butterfly life cycle set.
Some of these children already have shelves at home. Some of them do not. Every one of them has at least one book now.
The bundles did not stop at the museum door.
We also gifted literacy bundles to other local organizations and programs across Roanoke, so that children who were not in the room that Saturday would still get one. The families who attended saw a fraction of who this reached. The rest happened quietly, in other buildings, through people already doing the work in their own corners of the community.
That is what we mean when we say nobody left empty handed. Some of the children who got a bundle this year never set foot in the museum.
What the Families Said
We would rather let them tell it.
Thank You
To the families who came out on a Saturday morning and stayed: thank you. You are the reason any of this exists. A program with no children in it is just a plan.
To Mayor Joe Cobb, thank you for reading, for staying, and for sitting down at the craft table. The children noticed, and so did we.
To the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, thank you for the room and for everything that came with it.
And to our sponsors, who committed before a single kit was packed:
Lillian's Professional Services
AAUW St. Augustine (FL) Branch
Roanoke Public Library Foundation
Principled Behavior Consultants
You can read more about who they are and what they do in our sponsor spotlight.
To every individual donor who sponsored a bundle, and to the community partners and volunteers who carried tables, greeted families, handed out materials, and stayed to pack up after the last family left: thank you. None of this happens without you, and most of what you did will never show up in a photograph.
Next Year
The 5th Annual is already ahead of us. If your school, library, or organization wants to host It's Cool to Learn, or if your business wants its name on next year's sponsor list, email info@dwhispers.org
Continue to chase change.
