Hazelwood School District thank you for allowing my son, Sidney Keys III to not only attend your board meeting this evening but also recognize him for his efforts as a child making a difference in Hazelwood MO and beyond.
” Sidney started his own book club which he titled Books n Bros Book Club to make reading fun for boys particularly between 8-10 years old but we welcome within the reading level of 4th-6th grade. Boys, especially African American boys statistically stop reading within this age group and we wanted to combat that stereotype and encourage literacy within the young African American community. Sidney loves reading all genres of books like Grumpy Cat to Diary of a Wimpy Kid to books like the featured Danny Dollar: Millionaire Extraordinaire: Lemonade Escapade. We held his first meetup with his new reading friends Saturday, September 10th 2016 at the African American Childrens Bookstore EyeSeeMe. The owners agreed to open their space monthly to allow Sidney to encourage reading in the community. At the first meetup, Sidney had a successful turnout, fun music and even had the idea to host his own lemonade stand in light of the plot of the featured book. During this event not only did he make new friends, but he learned skills of leadership, public speaking and entrepreneurship. After finishing the first book, we hope that all of the readers learn the previous mentioned as well as financial literacy. His next meetup will be at EyeSeeMe Saturday, Oct. 8th, 2016 from 4pm-6pm.”