‘Little Toasters’ builds confidence in Peninsula girls

Not long ago, I missed the stand-down notice for Communities In Schools of Peninsula’s mentoring program at Evergreen Elementary and, almost in vain, showed up ready to do my duty as a reading mentor for a delightful first-grade lady having trouble with her reading skills. But mentoring had been canceled for the day.

“Who are all these kids, then?” I asked office director Betty McCord. They’re with our “Little Toasters” program, answered my longtime friend, McCord.

Long story short, no one objected to my camera-and-curiosity attending the Little Toasters session. What an inspiring operation this is. A dozen or so third-, fourth- and fifth-grade girls very seriously addressed the – for some –frightening prospect of speaking before a group. Not one of them performed less than, in my estimation, perfectly.

Brooke Johnson, a fourth-grader, noted, “I joined Little Toasters because I was very scared to say a speech in front of people. Little Toasters helped me with that. On the scale of one-10, my confidence feels like 10! I’ve made many new friends here and I’m thankful I’m in Little Toasters.”

Her classmate Grace Roberts, “came to little toasters to do speeches and so I could be less shy. Now, here I am defiantly a lot better. I think more girls should join if they are struggling with speaking up, trust me it would help them. This group helped me have more confidence.”

The group’s overseer, Lori Mertens of Children’s Home Society, said the Little Toasters program began 10 years ago with only two schools and now serves all eight elementary schools in the Peninsula School District.

“It is a girls empowerment group to build self-confidence and give the girls experience in public speaking,” she said. “We meet once a week after school starting with a snack and sharing our highs and lows of the week. Next, we talk about our theme and word of the day which could be anything from colleges and careers to our favorite things about winter. Each girl then writes a short speech and presents it to the group. We finish our time with working on a craft related to our theme. The weekly program has had a great impact. Teachers report that the involved girls speak up more in class, have better eye contact and participate more in classroom activities. This year, we also started the program in two Belfair schools.”

“Little Toasters helps me improve in lots of ways,” said fourth-grader Keyanna Davis, “like my voice level, build up my confidence and writing wonderful speeches. And it’s super fun!”

“I can be myself and I can say what I am feeling,” said classmate Lauryn Hicks. “I learn to speak louder and I like being part of the group.”

Intern Chelsie Compton is an Early Childhood Education graduate from Liberty University.

“In June 2017, I began an internship at the Children’s Home Society Family Resource Center on the Key Peninsula,” she said. “In September, I got involved with Little Toasters at Evergreen and Minter elementary schools. Now, I am leading Minter and a newly made group at Belfair Elementary. It is such a positive program for young girls. I love how this program has established a place for young girls to build their confidence and learn that the best thing that they can be is to be themselves.”

For fourth-grader Mylie Matthies, “It’s very fun and exciting to be there and we do wonderful projects. If I could, I would stay in Little Toasters forever!”

Classmate Amelia Staples said, “Little Toasters is an amazing group. We do fun activities like art projects, we tell our highs and lows of the week, we write a short speech and share it in front of the group. And at the end we get to pick out a lollypop!”

Aha! I knew there’d be a secret lure. Whatever works!

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 8:00 AM with the headline "‘Little Toasters’ builds confidence in Peninsula girls."