Butterfly Books was delighted to kick off our organization’s second annual holiday series with an early winter-themed event at the Dulles Town Center! Volunteers brought fun carnival games, including bean bag toss and ring throw, through which kids won candy and bookmarks. Butterfly also, of course, gave away free books. Stay tuned for our next holiday program announcement!

In partnership with We Are the Future of Medicine, a youth-led initiative dedicated to children’s health education, Butterfly visited Generation Hope to speak to the participating kids about tooth care. The team read dentistry-centered books, distributed free books, and gave away play-doh crafts. Butterfly is so excited to continue working with both of these amazing organizations!

Butterfly Books returned to the wonderful Family Fest Venue to celebrate Halloween with community families. The team handed out free books, crafts, and of course, candy! Butterfly had an amazingly spooky time seeing everyone’s costumes and can’t wait to return soon.

Butterfly Books got into the autumn spirit with the Falls-Church McLean Children's Center, returning for their annual festival! The team donated free books to all attendees, facilitated a read aloud station, and led Halloween-themed crafts.

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 to children in hospice to enjoy over and over again. Stay tuned for our read-aloud video initiative!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.