Ongoing projects

Over the years, we have been fortunate to develop some wonderful relationships with various organizations throughout the East Coast. What began in some cases as a one-time donation has evolved into an ongoing partnership with multiple books donations over the years, sometimes numbering into the thousands.

Here are a few:

Reading is Basic Program, Back to Basics Learning Dynamics

Back to Basics Learning Dynamics and Success Won’t Wait  launched the “Reading is Basic Program”  in 2011. Currently, Back to Basics services over 150 Title I students from the Red Clay, Colonial, Brandywine, Smyrna, and Appoquinimink school districts for supplemental instruction.   Using book donations from Success Won’t Wait’s collection, Back to Basics will make over 500 age-appropriate books available to Title I students. Program teachers will distribute 2-3 books per student, which they can take home and keep.

Additional books will be provided to the children at regular intervals, and as new students are added to the Back to Basics’ Title I program, they will also receive age-appropriate books.

A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, Family Resource Center

A.I. duPont Hopital is a part of Nemours which employs 4,100 professionals, including more than 420 specialty and subspecialty physicians and surgeons. One of the nation’s largest health systems dedicated to the health of children, Nemours cared for 239,000 individuals in 2006 during more than 560,000 outpatient visits, 11,000 hospital admissions to our own Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (AIDHC) as well as an estimated 25,000 to affiliates; and 47,000 surgical procedures.

The Nemours organization owns and operates the AIDHC as well as the Nemours Children’s Clinic, a single group practice with multiple locations in Wilmington and the Delaware Valley as well as Jacksonville, Orlando and Pensacola, Florida. Supported by a single electronic medical information system, physicians across subspecialties are able to provide or advise on care for a patient anywhere in the system. Further distinguishing the comprehensive span of care, Nemours provides health education through KidsHealth (the world’s most lauded and visited web site dedicated to the health of children), research and professional education leavening the standard of care, prevention through Nemours Health and Prevention Services and adjunct programs dealing with detection and intervention such as Nemours BrightStart! Dyslexia Initiative.

Methodist Services

Methodist Home for Children in Philadelphia was founded in 1879 by women of faith to care for orphaned children.  Today, 127 years later, the orphanage has been long closed but the building is still being used for various community outreach and activities.  The historic Main Building is the site for the Before and After School programs, Summer Camp and an emergency Foster Care Respite apartment.  Black Women in Sport Foundation maintains a presence on the ground floor in a collaboration in which they offer alternative sports activities for the children enrolled in programs.

P.A.L. of Philadelphia (27 locations)

The Philadelphia Police Athletic League is an independent non-profit corporation committed to “Cops Helping Kids”. Philadelphia PAL, a registered 501(c)(3), is comprised of 27 centers across Philadelphia serving 26,000 youngsters both male and female. Each center is supervised by Philadelphia Police Officers who are assigned full-time to direct activities and oversee the young people. Programs include sport, educational and cultural opportunities. All PAL Centers are open Mon-Fri after school and throughout the summer. PAL is a mixture of police officers, civilian staff and a board of directors, which is made up of 100 of Philadelphia’s business and community leaders (several of which are former PAL Alumni themselves).

PAL began in 1947 with a few volunteer officers organizing local kids to play baseball, basketball and football. With its success the Superintendent of Police (Howard P. Sutton) initiated a district sports program to promote a better relationship between policemen and the youth of the community. PAL continued to grow in popularity and in 1949 it incorporated as a non-profit organization. By 1950 enrollment was up to 2,350 boys engaged in sports competition. In 1951, the Christian Schmidt PAL Scholarship began with five PAL youngsters. With consistent support from private individuals and corporations PAL has developed into its current form and is helping more kids become success stories than ever before.

Personal Ponies began with the dream of founder, Marianne Alexander (and just two ponies) to do something special for special children. As a breeder of Connemara Ponies and Irish Sport Horses, for more than 3 decades, she wanted to give something back. She discovered the incredible sensitivity of the UK Shetland Pony to children with disabilities, and saw first hand how they changed children’s lives.

Personal Ponies mission is to make MAGIC in children’s lives, to bring smiles and joy in a most unusual way. The lives of children with special needs are immeasurably enriched by having a small equine companion to love and care for. Personal Ponies are uniquely suited in temperament and size to small children, and are provided to families completely without charge.

PPL has grown into an international organization involving hundreds of volunteers throughout the country. There are now programs in almost every state.

Elementary, Middle and High Schools

• All Saints School
• Brookside Elementary
• The Bullock School
• Conrad Middle
• Castle Hills Elementary
• Claymont Elementary
• Wilmington Manor Elementary
• Mount Pleasant Elementary
• Downes Elementary
• Brader Elementary
• Stanton Middle
• Highlands Elementary
• Southern Elementary
• Thurgood Marshall Elementary
• Brandywine Springs Elementary
• Elbert Palmer Elementary
• Edison School
• H.B. du Pont Middle School
• Cab Calloway School of the Arts
• Charter Academy of Dover