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News and Events
January 2021

How Do Communities Come Together?

That’s the question that Ms. Susan’s fourth grade class at Bridges Public Charter School will answer in this year’s Young Authors’ Book Project (YABP) book!

The students are writing about themselves and from the point of view of activists like Angela Davis and Colin Kaepernick, exploring joy in the people and places that continue to influence our communities.

For Joseph, one such person is his late grandma.


An Excerpt from Joseph B.

“I never got to meet my grandma but I loved her from my heart. She was a good person.

She passed away in 2007, before my brother and sister and I were born. We heard she was a lovely person, and that she helped people as if they were her family. She opened her home to anyone and loved to party, especially the cookout on her birthday. I wish she wouldn’t have passed on. I would have loved to meet her. The others felt sad because her birthday just passed and she was not here to celebrate, since cancer took her away from us.

I wish someday soon we will get a cure for cancer and then more grandmothers and parents (or just people with cancer) can’t pass on. They will still be with their families.”


At the end of the school year, we’ll publish these student pieces—everything from personal narratives to poetry—in a fully-illustrated collection.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to guide the young authors through the writing and revision process.

You Can Help

Do you have any words of affirmation for Joseph and his classmates? If you send an encouraging note for the writers to Deb at deb@826dc.org, she’ll be glad to pass your support along.

You’re also welcome to donate to 826DC here! Your generosity helps make projects like this one possible.