A Beacon in the Community
Even before she was hired at NPL, the BBTL program had been partnering with Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt to participate in the hospital’s GROW program. The program, which families would participate in for three consecutive years, studied how effective family interventions were at preventing obesity in children.
To give something back to the people who invested so much of their time to complete the study, Vanderbilt asked NPL to provide free literacy workshops to participating families, many of them predominantly Spanish-speaking. It was the kind of work Klem-Marí had spent most of her life preparing for.
“We spent about five years working with GROW. During that time, we served 4,535 people through 845 workshops, giving out 3,300 children’s books to the kids,” Klem said. “Our team worked on calendars, newsletters, and coordinated field trips to NPL. We signed up more than 600 people for their library card.
“It was a lot of work, but it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.”
That work continues to this day. Through BBTL, Klem-Marí and the other members of her team work with our library’s iconic Puppet Truck to produce literacy workshops for parents, teachers, daycare workers, and preschoolers. Through puppet shows and other activities centered around reading, singing, talking, writing, and playing, the BBTL crew shows their audience just how much fun reading can be.
For Latinx and Spanish-speaking families, these workshops are more than just an engaging activity — they’re a bridge into all that NPL can provide.