FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2017
Local Five-Year Old Selected as a Disney Summer of Service Winner to
Create Positive Change in his community
Cheverly, MD,
February 7, 2017 – Tyler Stallings, a kindergarten student from Cheverly,
Maryland has been awarded a Disney Summer
of Service grant through YSA (Youth Service America). The grant
will support Stallings in leading a community service project that addresses
the issue of providing free books to children and families who need them. Stallings
will continue his #1000 book giveaway that he was inspired to create last year, upon realizing that all children could not afford to purchase interesting
books to keep.
Service activities will take
place during the first few months of 2017 at Studio Styles (Rosemary’s Beauty Supply
of Annapolis, Maryland), in conjunction with an Anne Arundel County-based nonprofit
organization called Hands of Hope, Inc. Stallings and his partners will host a reading party for children residing in the Annapolis area. The festive event will incorporate
community togetherness, education, art, youth service, a read-in, distribution of new and gently used books, and an opening ceremony of a
portable library that will be permanently housed in Studio Styles. After the installation of it, community members and customers who patronize the salon and barbershop can leave or take books through the literacy project. With the help of
sponsors and individual donors of Tyler's traveling book festival, over 1,500 books have been given to youth to
encourage reading at home, through the inaugural book festival.
Stallings is one of
340 young leaders across the country awarded a $500 Disney Summer of Service grant to
organize projects to help make their communities healthier, greener
and stronger. The grantee will educate and mobilize their peers
around the issue of remembering to read more books at home, and creating solutions
to read outside of school, through awareness, service, advocacy, and
philanthropic activities.
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Founded in 1986,
YSA (Youth Service America) supports a global culture of engaged
children and youth committed to a lifetime of meaningful service, learning, and
leadership. With half the world’s population under age 25, YSA’s mission
is to help young people find their voice, take action, and make an impact on
vital community issues. For more information, visit www.YSA.org.
Media Contact:
Andrea Blackstone
301-660-6991
