Discover the transformative power of literacy and community as we journey with Lesley De Paz, a veteran educator and nonprofit coach, who unveils the intricate tapestry of teaching and learning. From the heart of Minneapolis, Lesley illuminates the pressures that educators and students endure, while celebrating Story Orchard Books a beacon of community engagement and literary growth. Prepare to be moved by tales from the classroom, insights on teacher licensure, and the delightful Book Bike Mobile, which brings the joy of reading directly to the public.
Embark on a literary adventure that transcends traditional bookshelves and nourishes the soul. In this heartfelt conversation, we unravel the threads of accessible literature outside the walls of libraries, the significance of adult role models in literacy, and the foundational impact of phonics on young minds. Moreover, Lesley will share her recent foray into the genres of beach reads and personal finance, and how these stories have reshaped her perspective on reading. Join us as we celebrate the enduring impact of books, the Story Orchard Books vision, and simple ways to foster a love of reading in the next generation.
Do you dread Mondays? Does the thought of another Monday steal the joy of your weekend? Let me tell you about a product I have found and tried that can do away with the Sunday Scaries. Oddly enough, it’s from a company called Sunday Scaries. I have personally tried their products, gummies and tinctures and I can personally attest to their efficacy. If you go to their website and order any product, use the code Kindness20 to receive a 20% discount on your order.
Do you like good coffee? Are you like me and go to bed in anticipation of a great cup of coffee in the morning (and afternoon, maybe). Then let me introduce you to my newest sponsor, Coffee Bros. They have built their business on the cornerstones of sustainability, quality, consistency, and freshness. From coffee to brewing techniques to coffee and espresso machines, they should be your go-to for all things coffee. And if you order from them, use the code Kind10 to get a 10% discount on your order.
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
Discover the transformative power of literacy and community as we journey with Lesley De Paz, a veteran educator and nonprofit coach, who unveils the intricate tapestry of teaching and learning. From the heart of Minneapolis, Lesley illuminates the pressures that educators and students endure, while celebrating Story Orchard Books a beacon of community engagement and literary growth. Prepare to be moved by tales from the classroom, insights on teacher licensure, and the delightful Book Bike Mobile, which brings the joy of reading directly to the public.
Embark on a literary adventure that transcends traditional bookshelves and nourishes the soul. In this heartfelt conversation, we unravel the threads of accessible literature outside the walls of libraries, the significance of adult role models in literacy, and the foundational impact of phonics on young minds. Moreover, Lesley will share her recent foray into the genres of beach reads and personal finance, and how these stories have reshaped her perspective on reading. Join us as we celebrate the enduring impact of books, the Story Orchard Books vision, and simple ways to foster a love of reading in the next generation.
Do you dread Mondays? Does the thought of another Monday steal the joy of your weekend? Let me tell you about a product I have found and tried that can do away with the Sunday Scaries. Oddly enough, it’s from a company called Sunday Scaries. I have personally tried their products, gummies and tinctures and I can personally attest to their efficacy. If you go to their website and order any product, use the code Kindness20 to receive a 20% discount on your order.
Do you like good coffee? Are you like me and go to bed in anticipation of a great cup of coffee in the morning (and afternoon, maybe). Then let me introduce you to my newest sponsor, Coffee Bros. They have built their business on the cornerstones of sustainability, quality, consistency, and freshness. From coffee to brewing techniques to coffee and espresso machines, they should be your go-to for all things coffee. And if you order from them, use the code Kind10 to get a 10% discount on your order.
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
Speaker 1:
This podcast is part of the Deluxe Edition Network. To find other great shows on the network, head over to deluxeeditionnetworkcom. That's deluxeeditionnetworkcom.
Speaker 2:
Kindness. We see it all around us. We see it when someone pays for someone else's coffee or holds the door open for another person. We see it in the smallest of gestures, like a smile or a kind word. But it's different when we turn on the news or social media. Oftentimes what we hear about what outlets are pushing is the opposite of kind.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Kindness Matters podcast. Our goal is to give you a place to relax, to revel in stories of people who have received or given kindness, a place to inspire and motivate each and every one of us to practice kindness every day. Hello and welcome to the Kindness Matters podcast. I am your host, mike Rathbun. God, I love doing that. We are so glad you could join us today. Make sure that you go to the deluxeeditionnetworkcom deluxeeditionnetworkcom and check out their three podcasts of the month this month. First is Bacon is my podcast. Also, I Need Some Creep. And finally, the Beard Laws. Also check out the show notes and make sure you check out my deals with Sunday Scaries and the Coffee Bros. Now let's get into the show. Hey, welcome everybody to the show. I have such a cool guest for you today. She is a former educator and she has also coached nonprofits. You're a nonprofit coach and I have it on really good authority that you may be Kirk Cousins replacement when he walks away here in Minnesota.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely. Yes, definitely, I'm on. You know, I've broken one bone in my body and that was playing football in fifth grade, so I think I'm ready.
Speaker 2:
Oh well, you've got all the experience you need.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the show Leslie DePaulis.
Speaker 3:
Thank you. Thank you, yep.
Speaker 2:
Did it right. Cool, and you are with currently with Story Orchard Books in North Minneapolis, yes, and we'll have plenty of time to talk about what that does and it's so cool. It's such a great story, but you come from an education background primarily.
Speaker 3:
I do yes, 18 years.
Speaker 2:
And did it now? Do most teachers teach like a specific age of children?
Speaker 3:
So it really depends. In the public schools you have a license that allows you to teach kind of a range. So my license is first grade to sixth grade and so I can teach all of those grades under that license. But of course there's flexibility if need be and you can ask for a provision or kind of some excuses to that rule if necessary. But in general the public schools do tend to stick within those license bands In the private schools.
Speaker 3:
you don't need a license, so you can really teach what suits you best or what the school feels that you would be best at. That really fits your needs.
Speaker 2:
You don't need a teaching license.
Speaker 3:
No.
Speaker 2:
To teach in private schools.
Speaker 3:
No, not in the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 2:
Really so, for I'm trying to think of one Totino Grace.
Speaker 3:
Sure, any of those private schools. You don't legally need a teaching license. There are certain requirements that the school will set out A four-year degree from a college or a specific, maybe focus. If they're teaching personal finance, that might be more specific and they're going to want something in that. But yeah, it's really up to the schools to define that.
Speaker 2:
I guess I did not realize that.
Speaker 3:
Huh yeah, and you know there's pluses and minuses to that. But if you know your content and you know how to relate to people, then that can be a huge bonus. If you do need to teach specific phonics or some skills that maybe are often taught in a teacher prep program, then that's something that maybe wants to be considered as a prerequisite. But also getting people with diverse experiences into our schools can be a really good thing. But when you need a specific teacher theory or experience or background, you know you really need to look at what are the costs and benefits to kind of all of it.
Speaker 2:
Sure Sure, yeah. And you were mentioning phonics. Hook done. Phonics worked for me. That was actually after my school, that came, what was that? The 80s.
Speaker 3:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, these early 90s yeah. I was already out of school.
Speaker 3:
There you go.
Speaker 2:
Then came up with the best stuff after I left school. So and then did you decide you needed to break after from teaching, and is that when you went into coaching nonprofits?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so a lot of things happened during. So I taught for 18 years in elementary school, primarily in first and third grade, taught in the Spanish immersion programs for 13 of those 18 years and it was just the best job ever. I mean honestly, like sometimes I would joke I don't know how people spend their days with just adults, like kids are so much fun it can be exhausting.
Speaker 3:
And kids are exhausting, that's for sure. But there were so many wonderful things. I mean the amount of hugs I got and the amount of stories I got to read and the amount of stories I got to hear, especially about teeth, a lot of teeth stories, really. Oh yes, because teeth are falling out left and right.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I thought so.
Speaker 3:
A lot of just pure humor. You know, some of my most wonderful memories come from the relationships I built with kids and families and colleagues. Schools are just a wonderful place, but they're also under a lot of stress and pressure, and that pressure comes from a good place. We want kids to be able to read and write and think and be critical thinkers and analyze in all these different pieces, but at some times that is at a detriment to the mental health and well-being of the adults, and sometimes there's too much pressure on those sweet little ones, and so there needs to be balance. But finding that balance is almost impossible. You're dealing with one of the second largest groups of publicly employed people After police officers, and so how are you going to make a system that fits everybody? You're not. How do you make a system that's flexible to meet everyone's needs and strengths? You're not. So you're looking at a system that can be very challenging, and then you're looking at sweet kiddos who learn in just as many different ways as there are kids.
Speaker 3:
There's no way that you can create a curriculum that's going to meet the perfect needs of everyone. So then you say, oh well, teachers are trained to differentiate, teachers are trained to meet the needs of this, and that, of course we are but there's not the time and there's not the support, especially when you have class sizes of 33 to 35 kids.
Speaker 3:
And so the school system has its awesomeness and it also has pieces that need support, and we do need the public support to recognize that. My husband always jokes that everyone thinks they can be a teacher because they went to school. They know what teachers do, but in reality you were a kid when you were in school, you didn't see it at all. So there's just so many different pieces to it. But as I now look back, teaching was so wonderful in so many ways. But the last number of years have been challenging for a plethora of reasons. So you know, teaching through COVID, along with having three kids of my own, my husband is an educator. So that was a time, a big lesson in time management.
Speaker 2:
Oh boy, yeah priorities.
Speaker 3:
And that really showed me that we needed some flexibility for our family to be okay. So we chose me for the one to step away for a bit and I believe not knowing how many years we would need to kind of make sure that we were on track. And in the meantime I took a position with a nonprofit in the providing consulting to other nine profits and fell in love with it. And that's kind of what I've been doing alongside with running the nonprofit that I started back in 2017 called Story Orchard.
Speaker 2:
And that's really what we're here to talk about is Story Orchard. I was just kind of building into it, yeah, okay. So I don't know where to start with here. Story Orchard is what Go ahead.
Speaker 3:
Story. Orchard is one of my little dreams that has finally kind of come about to full well I'll say almost full capacity within this last year. But back in, let's see. Back in 2014, I changed school districts into a new classroom and realized that my classroom needed a little bit of bump in books. And so I started to collect books for my own classroom and realizing that books are super expensive and at that point I didn't have a budget from the school to get new books.
Speaker 3:
And so I started thinking my goodness, like I'm a seasoned teacher, I have the ability to buy books for kids, and they didn't have to be new, you know, with garage sales and such Sure, but how do new teachers stock a completely new classroom library if funds aren't there? So I was like you know what people are giving away books left and right. I'm going to collect them and make sure that the right books get in the right hands of new teachers. So that's what I started doing. But of course, then life, you know, delays all of your great plans. Oh, I had a couple of kids along the way and my husband said you know, you need to get these books out of our basement.
Speaker 2:
Okay, when you say you were collecting all these books, you were collecting them in your house.
Speaker 3:
And garage, I mean, of course. So at that point I had done quite a bit of research in the importance of literacy in general and what the research really points to is it's not just kiddos that need strong literacy skill, it's communities. So I had done a lot of research behind community literacy and the impact that that has on not only individual kids but the mental well-being and mental health and personal success of adults and then communities as a whole.
Speaker 2:
Wow.
Speaker 3:
And that ties into personal, like self reports of personal success, mental well-being and then also crime. It's tight, my goodness yeah.
Speaker 2:
Books affect crime.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Access to books. I guess we should say right.
Speaker 3:
Well, access to books and then, yes, the opportunity to have books and learn from them, has a direct correlation or is shown to reduce risky behavior.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:
I had no idea that link even existed, so it was like when you were talking about yeah, so it links through self-efficacy, so the belief that you can do something, mental health, so a strategy to be able to reading can do a number of things.
Speaker 3:
It can be motivating to the fact of oh, I've learned something. Now I want to put this into action, which would take you towards a positive versus a positive path, versus having that temptation to do something or engage in a negative behavior. Reading can also reduce stress significantly, especially for anxiety and mental health. It brings you out of reality, gives your mind a reset and it also provides you with the opportunity to empathize with others, have yourself, your identity and your experience validated so that you don't feel isolation, which is research-based to show that that decreases depressive states. So access to books and then actually engaging with them does have positive impacts on one's self-perception, future success, blah, blah, blah, which in turn reduces engagement and risky behavior, which then can turn criminal behavior. So is there a direct link? If you read, you will not do these behaviors? No, but we know that if you engage with reading and books and others, it has a positive mental health and personal efficacy in all of those pieces, so that decreases the opportunity or the time to be involved in riskier, negative behaviors.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that's I had no idea so you had talked about. We're going to be right back with more of my conversation with Leslie DePaz from Story Orchard Books, after this brief message from another Deluxe Edition podcast.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Drink O'Clock, the podcast. That's always happy hour. Join us each week as we sit down with interesting guests over a drink and talk about life, work and everything in between. Whether you're sipping on a cold beer, a glass of wine or your favorite cocktail, drink O'Clock is the perfect way to unwind and hear some amazing stories. So tune in to Drink O'Clock every week anywhere you can find podcasts and join the conversation. Cheers.
Speaker 2:
Young teachers and just having access to books to get your students to read. And while we were talking offline, you talked about a term I had never heard before but it makes sense, and that is a book desert. And I think most of my listeners have heard of the term food desert, which is where you have an inability to get fresh food, fresh vegetables and that sort of thing, and generally that happens in our city. I know I used to live in South Minneapolis.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, or rural, and there was no real grocery store there.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So food deserts happen in a bunch of different places around our country and the world. The circumstances behind it are really situational and environmental in that extent, and we can see the same for book deserts. Here where the story orchard works, our community is Camden in North Minneapolis and we are so lucky to have two amazing libraries, which is so fantastic. But that's only one piece to having access, and having access to literacy opportunities and books needs to be ingrained and intertwined into a community. And so here at Story Orchard we have it kind of in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 3:
We have our book Bike Mobile, which is how we started, and when I started to learn about the kind of community literacy needs, we did a Go Fund Me and threw up $3,000 to have. Our goal was $3,000. That's it, $3,000. That's it. That's how we needed to build a custom-built bookmobile and we had an artist and metalworker from our area create the most amazing bookmobile and I filled it with books and hopped on it during my summer months off as a teacher and I went to community events and parks and talk about kindness and joy. If you're ever feeling a little down, find a bookmobile. It is just pure joy. I cannot tell you I mean after the kids got over the fact that it wasn't an ice cream bike.
Speaker 2:
Because it does kind of look like an ice cream bike. I'll be honest.
Speaker 3:
It does. But you know, if I get them to come over because of that, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:
Whatever gets them near right.
Speaker 3:
But the amount of high schoolers that were looking for books really surprised me, the amount of adults that I mean those mystery books. Let me tell you James Patterson, minnesota author oh boy. I mean those books. I could not keep them stocked.
Speaker 2:
The notebook. No, I could not keep his books and the mystery and the notebook.
Speaker 3:
I mean people love them, yeah, and so yeah, it was really neat to be able to bike around, paddle around our community and give away free books. We also do partnerships with schools. Then we have our community bookshelves and those are bookshelves that are in businesses, neighborhood association, park board facilities and then food shelves those are stocked biweekly or when necessary with free books, and that just gives one other touch point for people to have access to books and literacy.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, because the moral areas you can create for them to go to to get a book, the better off. You are right.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely, and transportation is something that is a barrier to getting to libraries, and I wish we had better transportation, public transportation, here in Minnesota.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and we're getting there?
Speaker 3:
We're definitely getting there, but it's just not as accessible as I wish, and so having access to books is in different points of your community is really beneficial for all.
Speaker 2:
Sure, yeah, I have very fond memories of the bookmobile in the city that I grew up in. How fun, we're talking the 70s. And it was the big old bus one, right, yes, yes. And you would go on in through the front door and you'd just make your way to the back and check out books and I love the smell of that, the smell of all those books. It was so cool and it was summer so you didn't have school and I think I don't remember the only library I remember from my hometown was downtown and we were a ways away from that. But yeah, the bookmobile was just so cool and then you might have to, you'd have like two or three weeks before it would be back again and I could go through a couple books.
Speaker 3:
Yes, absolutely, how fun. And then, this past year, not this past year, in 2021, we opened up our first actual space physical space where people could come and get their books.
Speaker 2:
Book and more.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, even though I've been told bookstores are going away no, they're not, they're not People still love them. Another barrier to books is the price, and that's something that is tricky, and that's why libraries are so amazing, because those books are. You can check those out with no barrier to cost. And so, looking at the demographics of our neighborhood, I knew that cost could be a barrier to some of our community members, if not a little, a chunk, more than just a few, and so we really looked at how we provide free books. So 90% of our books are donations. People want to see books passed on. That's why people write in them, they write an inscription, they write that it's just really neat, and so 90% of our books are donations. And then we buy 10% of our books for specific requests, specifically around book clubs for neighborhood associations to do, or local book clubs, and then also any specific requests from teachers if they're like, hey, I'm looking to do a book study.
Speaker 3:
I need six copies of this If we don't have them on hand or we can't get them, then we'll order those new oh wow. A little shout out to First Book. They are an organization that provides discounted books from publishers to nonprofits and schools and they are just an amazing support for book access in general.
Speaker 2:
Oh cool. So now Storyartric Books, the physical location. You have books from preschoolers through adults, right?
Speaker 3:
Absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:
Wow, it's not just kids, no, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3:
As much as we talk about literacy, kids need to see adults engaging in literacy, whether it's simply writing your grocery list, seeing that reading and writing is something that is crucial to their lives. And then you get the pushback, of course. Oh well, everything's on the computer, everything's on my phone now. That's fine, but show kids that you're doing them, showing them, show kids that you're working with words, showing that that's just important. Oh, they don't need to spell anymore, and I'm not going to push back on that. You're right, kids don't need to spell much anymore.
Speaker 3:
But, to that point. We are finding that if kids don't have a good grasp on phonics, if they do want to pursue careers where there are a lot of terms based in phonics or phonetics medicine, sometimes law they're going to need that phonics to be able to figure out the pronunciation and then also the word stem. That can help them figure out the meaning of words for those careers that use vocabulary based in that piece. So there's, of course we can find a push and pull of every side and everything you want, but there are some research based pieces there.
Speaker 3:
So, yes, our store has books for everyone. We try to hold every genre possible, but it's really based on what is donated and we have different sections of our space dedicated to those different age groups.
Speaker 2:
That is so cool. What a great organization you have there, Because it is so important. I know after my first child and everybody would say if you want your kid to read, you've got to read to them. How do we get our kids? Because I have three kids and they all have varying degrees of likeability of reading. How do you get a kid interested in reading? Is there a way to do it?
Speaker 3:
If I had an absolute one, two, three path for that, I would be a millionaire.
Speaker 2:
A lot of people have tried.
Speaker 3:
A lot of people have tried, but there's so many different pieces. But the root of it is asking the question why does one read? Why does a kid read? Why does an adult read? Why does anyone actually read? What purpose is that reading serving? And I think that is kind of the root of it. And so we can look at reading for so many different reasons. First of all, we read to understand. So we understand for a number of different reasons. Are we reading to learn? And some people really thrive on learning. They read every nonfiction category, from gardening to car mechanics, to space, to medicine, every history. They read to learn and that's something that's really motivating to them. Oh, I learned something. I can apply that and take that out into the world, I can teach others, or simply I just like learning.
Speaker 3:
So I might read it to simply learn. People might read to feel validated, to learn about the lives of others. All of those people like me that embody every emotion of other people in a heartbeat. That would be me. I read mainly to understand people and just love in the stories of lives and that's really intriguing to people. And they might read to escape. Their life is a certain way and they want to be in a different space. They might read to escape.
Speaker 3:
For people with anxiety, rereading the same thing is really comforting and that can be something where they reread the same book. They might not realize it, but they're rereading because they know what happens, it's predictable and that is comforting to their brain, their heart, their body, their soul. And you may read out of necessity for your job. You might have to do a report, you have to do the research, you have to know this. You're reading for a specific purpose and that sense of accomplishment gets you that kind of fix of what you need. So when we're talking about getting people to read, I think the root of it is what's the why behind it? Why do they want to read? What's that going to be that pull? So, first of all, to get kids to read. There's kind of a couple approaches, one you can read with them, reading when they're younger to them or as they get older, reading the same book but separately, so as your kids get into maybe middle school or high school.
Speaker 3:
I still really encourage adults in kids' lives to read with them, whether that is literally sitting down and reading out loud or they read to you, or reading the same book but separately and then talking about it kind of like a mini book club. But, that engages people in so many different ways, and it also gets people reading.
Speaker 3:
I do like to push, though, that making independent reading right before bedtime can sometimes, most of the time, not work because kids are exhausted. So reading right before bed for some kids that is just too much. So you might wanna do independent reading time right after they've eaten lunch or right after they've eaten breakfast. Okay, we're doing our 10 minutes of reading. I don't want to, I know. Let's try it. Let's set one minute and see how we do. Let's set two minutes and see how we do. But sometimes doing it just before bedtime kids are just too exhausted and they're like no, I'm not doing that, but maybe reading to them is what works at that particular point.
Speaker 3:
But if you have those kidders that are like I don't like to read, I'm not reading. Why do I have to read there? That's when that why piece comes in. So find out. What is the interest. Start with. What do they like? Do they like trucks? Great, let's read about trucks. Do they like volcanoes?
Speaker 3:
Let's read about volcanoes, anything like that, and then maybe you get in yeah, maybe you get into a fictional piece that is based where a volcano happened or whatever that might be, and if you're like, how am I possibly gonna find that? Go to your library. Those children, librarians are unbelievable. They're really, really, really fantastic. The other thing that I would say is, if the nonfiction route isn't kind of getting them to bite, try about emotions, just like I talked about. Are they going to middle school next year? Find books that are maybe a year above them. So if they're going into fifth grade, find a book that talks about sixth grade, because that's going to talk about an experience that they're going to have. My own middle schooler said to me the other day to her younger siblings or I guess not to me, to her younger siblings middle school is not as dramatic as the books make it out to be. I was like I'm really glad that you're having that experience. That is fantastic. But Cardi.
Speaker 3:
B feels like she was set up to be like, oh, there's gonna be a lot of drama or oh, this is going to happen, and she's like, nah, didn't really happen. That could be the complete opposite for other kids, who knows, but kids do tend to be drawn to that next stage in their life, whatever that might be. So getting kids to read something that is one step ahead of where they are can be really motivating for them. And then also, if kids tend to be really like sympathetic or adventurous, finding a book that talks about adventure, or if they are very creative, they like building everything with cardboard and adventure, or they're into the mystery of it all, find books that appeal to that. And I know that sounds like very like. Yeah, I knew that kind of advice find something that you're interested in. I would also recommend trying something that is the complete opposite of what they're interested in. I took a little breather and this is some. This is advice for adults as well.
Speaker 3:
I took a little breather from reading and I can't really explain why. But when I got back into it I was pulled into two genres that I had never read before. One was like those beach reads that you like buy at the grocery store. I had never read one of those in my life and all of a sudden I was devouring them like they were candy. I don't know what it was. I was like this is fantastic, I don't have to think about anything.
Speaker 2:
How did I not know about this?
Speaker 3:
Yes. And then the other genre was personal finance. I had never read a single book on personal finance and I got sucked in and I have now read four and just loved them Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Like who's the orman?
Speaker 3:
or no, I read millionaire teacher, which was the first one I read and that got me started. And then I read financial feminist by Tori Dunlap. And then I read oh, I'm blinking on my third.
Speaker 2:
That's okay.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's not a quiz.
Speaker 2:
It's not a test.
Speaker 3:
Candy Valentino was the author of the third one, though, and I'm blinking on the title. But anyways. So two genres that I had never dabbled in before and ended up just loving it. So if kids aren't biting on the things you think they're going to bite on, try something that can pleat opposite. If you have a middle school boy, try a middle school kind of girly book. See what happens. You never know.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, perfect, yeah so those are just some kind of thoughts on how to reengage or try to get kids to read or love reading. Oh, and some kids are never going to love it. I wish all kids did.
Speaker 2:
That's unfortunate.
Speaker 3:
Yeah or not, it is what it is yeah.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, I know they might really enjoy life theater instead, who knows?
Speaker 2:
My middle kid. He never, he just never really picked up and we tried, you know, of course, you know comic books here here no, not in the comic books and it's like, well, he was really into like motorcycles and stuff. I don't think we got him a subscription but we'd bring home like those motocross magazines, no, and it just. You know, it was what it was and you don't want to try to force a kid to read because that'll probably have the opposite reaction. Yeah, that never works, so but yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yes, just like the pediatrician says about vegetables just keep offering, Just keep offering Give the opportunity, Give the chance to explore, Give the chance to you know whatever.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, your organization is just so cool. I am so inspired just reading it and hearing about it. It's story orchard books and you're in North Minneapolis. I'll have the link to your website. Thank you, yeah, and all that other good stuff in there, but thank you for coming up with a few minutes that you could spend talking to me and sharing your amazing ideas. It really is Anything.
Speaker 3:
Yes, since this is the kindlet kindness project, I do have to say if you're ever looking for a bit of kindness to do, please stop into our space, because it's just like whenever I'm having a day that I'm like, oh, that wasn't my favorite, I just head over there and sit in that space and it's just so lovely to be surrounded by people and books and stories and lives and know that I'm not the only one that's ever had a bad day. Also, go through your own books at home and see if there are books that you can donate to your local elementary school, to your local library, to your local homeless shelter food shelf anyone who might have people that need a little up, pick up in their lives and then go out and buy a new book.
Speaker 2:
Yep To replace those ones that you give away.
Speaker 3:
There you go.
Speaker 2:
Fantastic. Leslie DePaz, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, and thank you for coming on the show and sharing your amazing organization.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, thank you. There's also plenty of opportunities to get involved in an organization on our website, so check out that front page.
Speaker 2:
If you need a volunteer volunteers, head here.
Speaker 3:
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Okay, we will talk soon. Wonderful, take care, have a great week.
Speaker 3:
You too Bye.
Speaker 2:
So many thanks to Leslie DePaz from Story Orchard Books and if you don't have time to go to the show notes to check them out, that's story orchardbooksorg. I learned so much on this episode and I'm so grateful for Leslie and her time today. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned a few things, and thanks for listening. I appreciate it. That'll do it for this episode of the Kindest Matters podcast. Again, check in the show notes for my partnership with sundayscarriescom or thecoffeebrowscom. You get a discount if you use my name. That'll do it. We're done for the week. We will be back next week, of course, and you know, until then, be that person who roots for others, who tells a stranger they look amazing and encourages others to believe in themselves and their dreams. You've been listening to the Kindest Matters podcast. I'm your host, mike Rathman. Have a fantastic week.