08/02/2024
Here’s a POST WORTH SHARING !
Greetings, everyone! The occasion for this rare post is a great need we’re experiencing in Story Link, which is a volunteer program that serves the residents of prisons operated by the Missouri Department of Corrections. Story Link makes once-a-month visits to 13 prisons. I’m currently involved at seven correctional centers, and direct the program statewide.
Here’s what Story Link is all about: Parents and grandparents who are incarcerated at MoDOC facilities and meet the good-behavior standards for participation in the program are allowed to select a book for their kids/grandkids; write a personal message in the book; and are recorded reading the book in a one-on-one interaction with a program volunteer.
In effect, the incarcerated parent is reading a bedtime story to their kids.
Story Link mails the book and recording to the children (at no cost to the inmate or the family), with the goal of strengthening the bonds between inmates and their children. Our access to the prison population also provides opportunities for Christian witness and ministry.
Here’s the need: donations of new, “like new” and “gently used” books. (Maybe you’ve got a stash of books your children have outgrown and you’d consider donating those! Or maybe your family, school or church would be interested in organizing a book-donation drive.)
The age range for the book recipients is infant through teenagers. Examples of books provided by Story Link: Children’s and teen Bibles, Biblical storybooks and devotional books; classic storybooks and story collections from Dr. Seuss (Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, etc.), Disney (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, etc.), Nickelodeon (Paw Patrol) and other secular publishers; books and graphic novels about historical figures, animals and dinosaurs, sports figures and celebrities. We avoid books with writing on the inside pages, torn pages, broken bindings, and other obvious defects.
Please message me here if you are interested in donating books. We live in Washington, MO now, and I’m happy to drive to you to pick them up or to meet you at a location convenient to you. I also shop for books several times a month, and if you’d like to make a monetary donation toward that effort or toward the ever-increasing cost of mailing books to the kids, here’s the snail-mail address for giving:
Story Link Program
9909 Manchester Road, #327
St. Louis, MO 63122
(Checks payable to Story Link Program)
Or to donate online, use the option available on my church’s website: therockstl.com
Open the Give tab; scroll down to “Select Fund” and choose the last option on that list—Story Link Prison Ministry.
(Story Link was founded in 1998 by members of our church, The Rock Church of St. Louis. The church has helped support Story Link throughout the program’s existence.)
If you’ve read this far, you are so kind and patient! Thank you, and blessings to you all.
Mike
