Who doesn’t love a free gift, cookies and Sesame Street? GET SET Transylvania is excited to announce a new program in partnership with Sesame Street in Communities- GET SET Toolkits. Toolkits will be rolled out monthly starting in September of this year with an opportunity for families with young children to explore 8 different topics with toolkits from health to family bonding.
To help kick off the toolkits this fall, Sesame Street in Communities will be coming back to Halloweenfest on October 26 in downtown Brevard with Sesame ambassador walkaround, Cookie Monster. Cookie will be here to celebrate with the GET SET partners with activities in front of county administration at the festival for young children and their families to enjoy. All are welcome to come greet Cookie and get a photo.
“The fall marks our first anniversary as a Sesame Street in Communities partner and we could not be more excited to have Cookie Monster coming to Halloweenfest. We cannot wait to celebrate how this partnership has helped us make progress as a community collaborative to improving the lives of our youngest citizens,” Page Lemel, County Commissioner said.
Toolkits are free re-usable grocery bags for families with children 0-5 in Transylvania County that will have a book from Sesame Street, free activities and resources for the family and helpful information on the topic of the month. Parents and caregivers will also have access to additional resources and information at the getsettc.org website with content on the topic of the month. The sign up button for the free toolkits is available now online at the website with the ability to pick out a location for your monthly pickup including child care centers, the library, the recreation center and other sites throughout the county.
“All parents and caregivers have those moments where they could use fresh ideas for activities with their children and these toolkits will be great resources to help inspire at those times. All of the GET SET partners hope the toolkits and the materials BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS COUNTY MANAGER Mike Hawkins, Chair Jaime Laughter W. David Guice, Vice-Chair 828-884-3100 Will Cathey Fax 828-884-3119 Jason Chappell Page Lemel 101 South Broad Street Brevard, NC 28712 inside will be ways that families can learn together while having fun,” Erin Drew, Executive Director of The Family Place said.
GET SET hopes the toolkits will engage all families of young children in Transylvania County and reflect how the community values how important childhood development is to our future as a community.
“A community that values the quality of life of those least able to advocate for themselves is a great community. Transylvania County is that kind of special community and GET SET is a great example of how different organizations can come together under the same principles of service and care and work collaboratively,” Jaime Laughter, Transylvania County Manager said.
GET SET recognizes that early childhood is important to today’s workforce and to the workforce of the community.
“Our working parents have needs for care, but more importantly, we know our children need quality early learning experiences in order to set the tone for how they will learn their entire lives. Learning takes place in care, but it also takes place at home and in the community for a young child,” Deb Tibbetts, Executive Director of Smart Start Transylvania said.
More information and a link to sign up for the toolkits are available at getsettc.org.