Building Community
Past Events
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Virtual Read-Aloud with HopeCam
Butterfly Books is excited to enter the virtual space with our new partner HopeCam! Our first collaborative event included reading books to immunocompromised children over Zoom. We recorded each read-aloud for HopeCam to distribute, being enjoyed over and over again by any kid in their community. Stay tuned for our read-aloud video initiative!
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Back 2 School Event at the Children's Inn at the NIH
Butterfly Books was honored to be invited to the NIH for the Inn's "Back 2 School" event series as the week's finale! The team read educational books with themes ranging from dinosaurs to crayons to bilingualism. Butterfly led wooden color-in crafts and sun catcher painting. The team also brought Thoughtful Treasures and school bundles to share with the children. Butterfly Books wishes all at the Inn a wonderful start to their school year!
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Artist Event at the Children's Inn at NIH
Butterfly Books returned to the NIH for another Author Series installation with art-themed books. We read a book focused on Chinese calligraphy and gifted each child a paint-themed craft. The residents especially enjoyed our sand-art activity and picking out their own brand new book from our collection.
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Summer Event with the FCMLCC
Butterfly Books returned to the Falls Church McLean Children's Center for a summer event, supplying free books to every student and leading crafts. The team is excited to return for the Center's fall festival, so stay tuned!
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Family Fest
Butterly Books is elated to announce our biggest event yet: Family Fest in cooperation with Family One. As the organization’s only nonprofit booth, we proudly handed out hundreds of free books and bookmarks to attendees and facilitated a special editions giveaway. We also shared sand crafts and read aloud to small groups of visitors. Butterfly Books would like to extend a massive thank you to Family One for inviting us to be a part of this wonderful event!
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Summer Series with Little Friends for Peace
Butterfly Books returned to Little Friends for Peace to join their Silver Spring program installation. The team divided to read a collection of age-targeted books to each camper group. The kids colored wooden crafts and decorated with stickers. Each attendee then received their own book to take home. Butterfly Books would like to thank LFFP for inviting us to their wonderful summer events, and we look forward to future collaborations!
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Bedtime Series at Second Story
Our team returned to Second Story for our very last nighttime visit with the residents. Even though we had to say goodbye, we had so much fun with the kids in our last read-alouds and lego games. Each child and mother recieved an age-targeted book to wrap up the event. Butterfly Books would like to extend our deepest gratitude for Second Story’s inviting us to share in their vital mission these past months!
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Summer Series with Little Friends for Peace
Butterfly Books returned to Little Friends for Peace to assist their Greenbelt summer program. The team split into four groups to read a collection of picture books to the campers. The kids decorated peace-themed wooden banners and wooden animals, and to finish things off, each child received a book of their own. Butterfly Books is excited to return to LFFP next week! Little Friends for Peace generously gifted us their signature book about how to fill your emotional bucket, which is sure to be a cornerstone of our read-alouds with children at future events!
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Bedtime Series at Second Story
Butterfly Books returned for our penultimate Bedtime Series installation with Second Story, with books and bubbles in tow. We read the beloved ladybug story and met some new residents, then ended off by giving each child and mother a book and bookmark.
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Summer Series with Little Friends for Peace
Butterfly Books was thrilled to begin a brand new partnership with Little Friends for Peace’s Hyattsville summer program. For our first event, the team split into three groups to read a collection of picture books to the attendees. The kids decorated peace-themed picture frames, and to wrap things up, each child received a book of their own. Butterfly Books is excited to return to LFFP next week!
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Bedtime Series at Second Story
During this week’s installment of our nighttime series, Butterfly Books read the residents their favorite patty-cake book before bed and played with some bubbles and balloons. Each child received a book and bookmark, and each mother received their own novel and bookmark.
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Bedtime Series at Second Story
The Butterfly Books team continued its partnership with Second Story, returning to Second Story to read more goodnight stories to the residents. We had some more fun with the popular bubbles and maracas, and ended the visit by giving each child three books, bookmarks, and stuffed animals. Each older resident received bookmarks and some age-specific books.
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Bedtime Series at Second Story
The Butterfly Books team returned to Second Story to once again read some goodnight stories to the residents, along with fun with bubbles and maracas. Each resident received a bundle of age-specific books and a bookmark, and each mother received her own bundle of an age-appropriate novel choice and bookmark.
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Summer Event at the Children's Inn at NIH
Butterfly Books returned to the Children’s Inn at the NIH to ring in the new season with the residents. Volunteers read two summer-themed books and led a craft activity of painting flower boxes and dreamcatchers. The team ended the event by gifting each attendee a book of their choice, followed by a larger donation of 60 Book Bundles in partnership with the Inn’s Thoughtful Treasures program.
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Bedtime Series at Second Story
Butterfly Books kicked off the summer with a new partnership with Second Story’s Young Mothers Program. The volunteers read bedtime stories to the children at the center and gifted each child a Butterfly Books tote bag with a Book Bundle, special bookmark, and stuffed animal. The mothers also received care packages with a Book Bundle, book light, and journal. We look forward to returning to Second Story every Monday throughout July and half of August.
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Spring Event at the Children's Inn at NIH
The Butterfly Books Team was delighted to be invited to the NIH for their Spring party! Lucia and Sydney kicked off the event with an Author Series installation, featuring Spring-themed books. Next, the residents started some crafts donated by Butterfly Books, including wood art, painting and making felt bunnies. Each child was also able to pick out some Butterfly Books goodies to make a personal Easter basket, which they also filled with treats from an Inn-wide egg hunt!
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Ribbon Cutting at the Children's Inn at NIH
Butterfly Books was honored to be invited to the Children’s Inn’s ribbon cutting to celebrate their brand-new international languages-focused library. Lucia and Sydney began by reading some stories, even exploring some new languages! Our team ended the visit with a donation of books in Spanish, Vitnamese, French and Mandarin for the residents to enjoy.
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Holiday Event at the Falls Church-McLean Children's Center
Our team board and a brand new group of volunteers spread over the Children’s Center’s eight classrooms to spread some holiday reading fun. We started by reading a few unique holiday books and then moved on to decorating wintery bags, coloring masks, and snapping some polaroids. Butterfly Books ended with a donation of over 80 books, making sure each student went home with a story of their own.
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Holiday Event at the YMCA
The Butterfly Books teen board and our first group of outside volunteers began our festive visit by reading inclusive holiday stories to the YMCA’s Seaton Elementary School chapter’s classes. Each child colored their own winter-themed mini bag and chose a special mini-edition book to take home. The team wished them goodbye with some holiday treats.
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Holiday Event at the Children's Inn at NIH
Sydney, Lucia, and Chloe began our second holiday season event by reading multicultural holiday stories to the NIH residents at the Children’s Inn. Afterwards, each child colored face masks and bags. They also painted picture frames, which they filled with polaroids after a fun photoshoot.
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Thanksgiving & Indigenous People's Day Event at the Children's Inn at NIH
Sydney and Lucia kicked off our first event by reading indigenous-centered books by Native American authors to our wonderful young listeners. Next, Chloe led the group in a special craft where the children made dreamcatchers and painted Thanksgiving art. The team also distributed 65 Thoughtful Treasures book bundles, making sure every NIH resident had a special book to wake up to on the following morning.
Jill’s House
Jill’s House is a Christian non-profit that provides short-term, overnight respite care for families raising kids ages 6-17 with intellectual disabilities in the DC metro area, and around the country. Parents regularly receive 24-48 hours to rest and recharge, while their kids are engaged in fun activities, tailored to their interests and abilities.
Children’s Inn at the NIH
The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a nonprofit that provides residential services and a wide range of programs to children, teens, and young adults with rare and serious diseases whose best hope for a diagnosis or treatment is an NIH clinical research study.
Hopecam
Hopecam is a 501(c)3 non-profit charity with the mission of using voice over Internet technology to help children with cancer overcome the burden of social isolation. By virtually connecting these children with their friends over a video conferencing application, Hopecam decreases the loneliness and anxiety they experience during this frightening time.
Second Story
Second Story’s community-based programs offer after-school homework assistance, life skills guidance, and safe environments for 2nd to 12th graders residing in vulnerable communities, along with drop-in support services available to their families.
YMCA
The Future Leaders Academy, an innovative preschool enrichment program designed to ignite a child's passion for learning while fostering their social and emotional growth, character development, and creativity. This academy is where young learners between the ages of 2 and 5 embark on a journey of discovering how they can make meaningful contributions to the world around them from an early age.
Little Friends for Peace
LFFP is dedicated to disrupting a culture of violence by imparting conflict prevention, resolution, and transformation skills. They firmly believe that instilling the values of peace at any age can equip individuals with the tools to counter violence with peaceful solutions. Their peace curriculum is designed to teach individuals how to approach themselves and others with a peaceful mindset, fostering harmonious relationships. LFFP actively encourages participants to nurture a sense of peace within themselves and extend it to their communities.
StandUp for Kids
StandUp for Kids provides mentoring, street outreach, drop-in centers, and a resource guide to people ages 0-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Everybody Wins DC
Everybody Wins DC distributes books and mentors children across economic and racial lines, focusing on fostering a long-lasting love of reading and literature.
DC Boys & Girls Club
The DC Boys and Girls Club certifies success for all children regardless of circumstance, especially within minoritized communities.
The Playtime Project
The mission of Playtime Project is to cultivate resilience in children experiencing family housing insecurity by providing and expanding access to transformative play experiences.
Capital Youth Empowerment Program
CYEP is committed to providing youth with the social-emotional learning (SEL) skills needed to thrive in today’s society through their youth training programs.
DC Dream Center
The DC Dream Center is a center for community where the needs of people in our city, especially youth, are met. They are dedicated to serving the needs of the community through a holistic approach. One person at a time, the DC|DC inspires youth and adults to dare to dream and learn to lead, so that they reach their God-given potential.
Shaw Community Center
Shaw Community Center’s mission is to enhance the lives and expand the opportunities of Shaw residents in NW DC. As a 30-year community anchor and the sole, remaining community-based afterschool program in Shaw, our Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) families have relied upon the “Center” as a place for refuge, talk, and emotional support.
Children of Mine Youth Center
Children of Mine Youth Center’s mission is to ” provide a safe, healthy, and child friendly environment for DC metropolitan area youths, primarily those residing in Ward 8, experiencing neglect, homelessness, substance abuse or the like, as a means to encourage self-confidence, scholastic achievement and economic stability”.
Uniting Our Youth
Uniting Our Youth’s mission to end the cycle of violence through compassion, education, mentoring and models of success one child at a time.
Project Belong
Project Belong inspires, recruits, and resources the local church to care for vulnerable children with the love of Christ.
KidsRFirst
Kids R First is a Reston, Virginia based 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the education and helping kids (grades K-12) from families of limited financial means with school supplies to receive the same opportunities as their peers.
Devotion to Children
Devotion to Children provides access to high-quality pre-school educational and childcare programs for economically-challenged families.