Once upon a time, there was a beautiful city! That magical place was called A-town! It was growing so quickly we could hardly keep up! It had so many things to offer – lakes, great restaurants, beautiful outdoors, shopping galore – it seemed to have everything! But — something seemed to be missing. What was it?
In the midst of searching for the missing piece to the near perfect A-town, conversations grew among a group of people who wanted to bring justice and mercy to the city. Were they superheroes trying to find their one act of service to this town, that would make a lasting difference? Could it be done? “YES!” and that’s where the story began.
The Talk
Many years ago in that thriving A-town, where all felt mostly perfect, there was talk. Talk amongst the people — those superheroes (without capes) who were leading our city in a spiritual way and those that governed our city — “What’s missing here? How can we help meet the needs of the community? We have masses of people who can and want to serve.”
After the city leaders met and the question came up, “What’s missing? What can these people who are so willing to help out do for A-town?” After talking to important researchers in our BIG beautiful kingdom of Central Texas, which they spoke with those who work with some of the most important heroes in our city – our teachers (who should ALL wear superhero capes!) – they did it!! They found the missing piece!
All those important city and spiritual leaders came back together for the answer they had been searching for. That incredible answer was a citywide network to be created, to fight childhood illiteracy. Our kids are the future of this place – not just magical A-town, but our state, our country and our world! So, it was known that the act of service was to help these children attain improved literacy.
The Birth
How are these masses of people, helpers of the city, going to accomplish this? That’s when a beautiful idea became a reality! Education Connection bloomed where it was planted! This new organization wanted A-town to be even better than what you could see on the surface – they wanted to help the children grown in knowledge and skills, to help them have a more promising future, both academically and economically.
This group of dedicated people, would soon join the ranks of heroes themselves, by taking this seed which was planted and sharing it across the land. At first, “the garden” was small, just to see how the seedlings would grow. What kind of “fruit” would the garden grow? The garden would bear “fruit” that looked like….every child reading by the end of 3rd grade. In order for that to happen, there would be many “volunteer gardeners” needed that would cultivate it with the use of humility, consistency and simplicity.
The Growth
Fast forward in the magical A-town! The city is still growing fast and thriving in many ways. With growth, comes growing pains, but not all growth is painful! Our “small garden” has bloomed and grown from one small region of the land, Leander town, to 11 districts across the land. In those districts, we’ve cultivated reading in 96 elementary schools, with over 2,535 children. We have more than 1,160 volunteers showing up every week to tend to their “gardens”.
The Need
That sounds like it could be the happy ending to our fairytale story, right? But, it’s not! There are so many more kids in our magical land of Central Texas. They need the seed planted in their communities. What does it take to grow the fruit bearing gardens to serve up to 4,000 more children in need? Commitment of time and resources. The commitment to help one child grow each year, requires approximately $100.
Help us get closer to growing our “gardens of literacy”, in Central Texas, by donating today! In our kingdom of humility, we don’t care how big or small the gift is. We simply strive to support the schools, classrooms and children.. Please become a hero in the story of Education Connection and eradicating childhood illiteracy in our magical, beautiful city!
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Image Source: Phoenix Public Library