Helping our Youngest Excel

Today, there are so many people in need with the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis. Not everyone is able to give to others, but for those who are this is an incredible time to open your wallet and your heart. Where do you begin to help in these days and months of crisis?

Certainly, we can’t cover all of the organizations that are helping people. But one organization that is worth a look is Inner City-Inner Child. This initiative has the goal of improving the quality of academic life for children from 0-5 in the Washington D.C. area and in their most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. They started in 1987 by bringing concert music to low-income neighborhoods and realized, through this initiative, that “young children had the greatest unmet needs in our community.”

Inner City-Inner Child was created in 1994 and works to integrate the arts with academics to help early childhood education in the D.C. area. With today’s inauguration, D.C. might be just the place to start focusing on our youngest citizens and their needs.

New Book: A Pandemic Keepsake

Some of us will certainly want to put this chapter of our lives behind us, and forget about the terrible days we dealt with Covid-19. But others would like to have a keepsake to remember these days and how they got through them. Allendale resident Lorraine Ash volunteered to edit the new book “Corona City: Voices From an Epicenter” which is a compilation of first-person stories and photography that people captured during the first months of the pandemic.

Writers who contributed include the best-selling authors Helene Stapinski and Ilene Beckerman and many everyday people who wanted to contribute. The book was published in November by Magic Dog Press and all royalties from it will go to the organization called Feeding America. It’s a network of over 200 food banks helping people get through this difficult time.