Dolly and our Daughter

In 2015, my wife and I did a crazy thing.

My older brother advised against it. He told me to support someone more qualified.

My father worried that it would ruin our long nights of playing cards.

My mom, as always, had my back.

Our friends? They were along for the ride. All in.

In 2015, we did a crazy thing and adopted a sibling group from Ohio’s foster care system.

We were highly inexperienced. Entirely unprepared. Fully out of our league.

From zero to four kids. Without question, we were in over our head.

Would we do it again? No chance.

Was it one of the best things that ever happened to us? Absolutely.

We love our kids and they love us.

When they first moved in with us, they were 14, 13, 12 and 11. Our youngest, Melanie, couldn’t read beyond a first-grade level. She was frequently relocated from foster home to foster home, which meant she was constantly in different schools. Her lack of literacy slipped through the cracks.

To say the least, Mel was in a rough place. She’d been held back a grade.

I give all credit to my wife for turning this situation around. Every single night she worked with Mel, reading classic children’s books. Before long, Melanie was reading at her current grade level. As I write this, she is 17 years old, and she not only made up the year that she was held back, but she will also be graduating six months early.

Childhood literacy is of utmost importance.

For a brief period of time, during a fabulous midlife crisis, I worked for the United States Post Office as a mail carrier. It was both fun and terrifying at the same time.

I once delivered a box of lady bugs. Frequently in the spring, we delivered live chicks. You can mail almost anything through the postal system, except for children. They stopped allowing that in 1914.

My favorite things to deliver were books. Until my stint as a mail lady, I was unaware of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Dolly’s father couldn’t read. Illiteracy weighed heavily on her heart. So, she started the Imagination Library that provides free high-quality books to preschool children.

I loved delivering those books every month.

Most of us were raised with books in our home. I was read to nearly every night as a child. When I grew up, I read everything I could get my hands on. The back of a cereal box. The shampoo bottle in the shower. Encyclopedias (ancient artifacts). Magazines. The Sunday comics.

Some kids don’t have books in their homes. And I have so much respect for Dolly for doing something to remedy that problem before children begin kindergarten.

But what about kids who are older? Kids like Melanie? Maybe they can read, just far below their proper grade. What about families that can’t afford to provide books for their young ones?

Children in low-income families are well behind their peers when it comes to their literacy skills and ability to read grade-level texts.

Worse yet, research has proven that 3rd grade reading levels are directly correlated to high school graduation rates.

Higher graduation rates = less poverty.

But how can we get grade level children to read?

The answer was not as puzzling as you would think.

Sitting on my desk was a word search book. And then it hit me. If we focused on interactive reading like activity or puzzle books, we could really make a difference.

Through my research I learned that puzzle and activity books have a powerful impact on cognitive development and literacy by:

-Increasing vocabulary

-Improving spelling

-Fostering problem solving skills

-Aiding in pattern recognition

-Improving processing speeds

-Boosting working memory

-Creating self-confidence

In 2021, my wife and I did a crazy thing. In May, we began to put together a business plan for a charity called Gaming for the Greater Good. Our goal is to provide free high-quality activity and puzzle books to children in low-income neighborhoods.

Dolly, and our daughter, inspired us. In turn, we’ve inspired a whole group of people willing to help. But starting a charity is expensive. Filing for tax-exemption with the IRS alone costs $800. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Marketing, domains, websites, books. To make a difference, we need to be able to get Gaming for the Greater Good off the ground financially.

This is our passion. I hope it will become yours as well.

In 2021, let’s do crazy things!

www.G3group.org