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Councilmember Will Jawando will be reading stories to young children while schools are closed due to the coronavirus emergency. In this day of social distancing, Jawando’s story time is streamed live from his office in the Council Office Building.
Virtual story time will take place weekdays starting Wednesday and will continue until schools reopen. Typically the time will be 11:30 a.m. but that is subject to change.
When asked what prompted him to do the virtual story times, Councilmember Jawando, who has four young children, told MyMCMedia, “Story time is big at our house. We’ve used the libraries [extensively and they] are closed now.”
He and his wife know that maintaining a routine schedule is important for young children, so he hopes parents and children will look forward to the daily story time.
Councilmember Jawando also expressed gratitude to Penguin Random House, and other publishing companies, who recently changed their policy regarding copyright infringement due to the escalating COVID-19 outbreak.
Wednesday was the debut of the story time. For his first book, he chose the picture book Waiting is Not Easy! by Mo Willems that tells the story of Gerald the elephant who is having a difficult time waiting for his surprise from Piggie. Gerald waits all day to discover his surprise is a beautiful star-filled night sky.
Jawando reminded children that while it is difficult to not be able to go to school, “We are waiting for a really good reason because we want to make sure people don’t get sick.”
Jawando then read a second book in the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems titled I Broke My Trunk.
Watch Wednesday’s story time below:
After the stories, Jawando provided an update to the adults on steps Governor Hogan announced Tuesday:
- Governor Hogan said utilities would not halt service and evictions will not take place until this crisis passes.
- The governor also announced that all restaurants and bars are closing. Restaurants may continue to stay open for delivery and pickup.
- And finally, the primary election has been moved from April 28 to June 2.
Tune in again tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. for story time with Councilmember Will Jawando, here.
