Not All Superheroes Wear Capes!

Written By:  Carey and Trevor McLaughlin

Not all superheroes wear capes and leap over tall buildings in a single bound.  Some come into your living room through your computer and teach literacy and math skills!  At Gigi’s we are grateful to all of our superhero tutors who make literacy and math come alive for our kids as well as the many people and supporters behind the scenes.

The Gigi’s Playhouse Rochester Math and Literacy Programs are in full swing for the fall session and participation in these programs is going strong.  While some students meet at the playhouse one-on-one with tutors, many meet virtually.  Virtual teaching is difficult, but our tutors have been up for the challenge and have come through with flying colors to make it a meaningful and productive learning experience.

This year, our literacy program is partnering with the Nazareth College Speech Department. This partnership has benefitted our Gigi’s children immensely and has also helped Nazareth students practice and perfect their teaching skills.  My daughter, Claire, is working with Nazareth students Bridget Collins and Anna Burt.  Both work hard to keep Claire engaged and fine tune her comprehension and decoding skills.  They have done science experiments and Halloween crafts which are fun and also fulfill the goal of helping Claire read and follow multi-step directions.  I am amazed at their patience and dedication to helping my daughter be a better reader.

The Math program volunteers work on math skills ranging from counting to telling time to money and more.  One Gigi’s Math student, Jessica Schaller, has worked with her tutor, Meghan, for multiple sessions.  Jessica can now count to 100, skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 25s and is working on adding up mixed change.  With Meghan’s tutoring, Jessica is well on her way to reach her goal of managing her money as an adult.  Jessica’s Mom, Lisa, says that they are “grateful for the extra resources that Gigi’s Playhouse offers Jessica.  Her future is brighter because Gigi’s is a part of it!”

Just like Spiderman leans on Aunt May for support, Gigi’s also relies on many supporters behind the scenes.  We are so grateful to the Karpus Foundation and L3 Harris for their generous support of our literacy and math programs.   Without their kindness and support, these programs we would not be able to continue bringing literacy and math programs to so many Gigi’s participants.  Additionally, we are also incredibly grateful to our program coordinators, Carrielyn Bertino and Samantha Franco for their dedication and countless hours they work to make the programs successful.

A heartfelt thank you to all of our superhero math and literacy tutors!  We appreciate all that you do for our children and the positive impact that you have on their futures.  In the words of Spiderman, “You can’t think about saving the world, you have to think about saving one person.”  “I think there is a hero in all of us.”