Imagine my surprise one morning when I opened an email and found a message from Lenore Schell that said, ‘Like to Help’. Lenore is a member of Palencia LARK – a local group of women who meet once a month and like to do random acts of kindness. They had read about our club and wanted to know how they could help.

It just so happened that we were working with the St Johns County Early Childhood Services Staff as they were planning a special family day at the St Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. We decided that Literacy Bags would be a perfect compliment to the day and a great way to utilize the LARK Group’s donation.
Lenore Schell and Angel Brueckman from LARK visited our club and presented us with $300.00 which we used to make 50 literacy bags distributed to PreK children attending the  Family Day.

The literacy bags contained a book about lighthouses, a journal, lighthouse coloring books, pencils, crayons, and erasers. We had a special bookplate made for the books honoring Lenore’s and Angel’s Moms – Joan Shimkus and Beverly McCravy – two Moms who loved to read. We in Altrusa St Augustine were very grateful for this ‘surprise’ donation that allowed us to further our literacy work here in St Johns County.

While at the event, the families toured the Lighthouse, made lighthouses, received free books and enjoyed a pizza dinner. Helping throughout the day were members of the JROTC Program at St Augustine High School.