Be My Neighbor Day invites families to participate in volunteer activities that aid neighbors in need. WFYI was well into planning its Be My Neighbor Day, slated for April 25, when the pandemic grabbed hold in Indiana. With grant support, we partnered with the Indianapolis Public Library, PNC Bank, Child Care Answers and the Indiana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, anticipating that we’d see 1,200 children.
No, we’re honoring our partners and finding ways to reach more children and their families at a time when being neighborly and caring matters so much. Instead of having a one-day event, we’re doing Be My Neighbor Week starting Aug. 24. Our community engagement team enlisted volunteers to help assemble and deliver Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood gift bags – each including a Daniel Tiger book, Be My Neighbor Day t-shirt, Daniel Tiger stickers, a toy, coloring sheets, game charts and suggested activities for being neighborly. Volunteers also wrote note cards to encourage children to be neighborly and included them in the bags. We used grant funds to buy more Daniel Tiger books from a local nonprofit bookstore. And we curated Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood episodes and created a Bingo game to align with them.
We worked with community partners Early Learning Indiana and Child Care Answers to distribute the books to the children of essential workers and families in ministries and day homes. All WFYI staff with children under 6 years old also received bags.