Comedian And Actor Lil Rel Howery Leads Storytime At Nia Family Center
Comedian And Actor Lil Rel Howery Leads Storytime At Nia Family Center
By Tia Carol Jones
Comedian and Actor Lil Rel Howery recently read the book, Raindrops to Rainbows, to preschool aged children at the Nia Family Center, located at 744 N. Monticello, on the city’s West side. The story time was part of a partnership with Chicago Commons, Share Our Spare and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Howery interacted with the children as he read to them. Howery, a West side native, said it was good to be around small children and to engage with them. He said being able to come back home and inspire young people was a great feeling. He said it was important for him to bring his upbeat energy to the story time.
“That’s the energy we have to keep giving them … we have to invest into these children early,” he said.
Howery said that he has always loved reading and that growing up, he read a lot of books. He said the highlight of his time with the children was their energy. He said books have the ability to open up a person’s imagination and that is why he wanted to be part of the story time. He said reading is so important, especially for his work as an actor.
Umi Grigsby is the Executive Director of Share Our Spare, which is a local partner for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. She said the goal of the story time event was to help children fall in love with reading. That is a large part of the mission of Share Our Spare, which was founded in 2011 by local mothers. The organization receives donations of essential items including diapers, wipes, books and blankets and distributes them to children and families.
“For us, essentials are not only diapers, but they’re also books,” Grigsby said.
Grigsby added that every child deserves access to books starting from the very beginning of life, a time when most development takes place. She said most children’s development happens in the first five years and is a time when they are building language, confidence and curiosity. She said that 61% of low income families report that there are no books in their household and made the correlation to books and reading and kindergarten readiness.
Share Our Spare and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library are helping to close the gap that comes from a lack of books in the home and children being ready for kindergarten, by providing books and ensuring every child can have a good start to their educational journey, Grigsby said.
“We know the gap is so large that when children have not been exposed to books when they start kindergarten, some kids will have heard 30 million less words,” she said.
Grigsby said that Share Our Spare has reached more than 5,000 children in Chicago. She said that while the organization works with families on the South and West sides, it is working to bring on more partners and expand its reach. She said the work the organization does is about community. She said the goal is to ensure all children have access to books, citywide.
Caregivers can enroll children in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, via the Share Our Spare website at shareourspare.org/freebooks.
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