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WINGS FOR KIDS: Helping Kids Soar For 20 Years & Counting

WINGS For Kids logoA few months ago, our friend Liz Mester, Director of Communications & Engagement at WINGS For Kids, reached out to us to help this incredible, Charleston-based organization celebrate their 20th anniversary. In case you’re new to WINGS For Kids, here’s a quick primer: it’s a fun, interactive after school program that helps kids develop social and emotional skills. Research continues to show that strong social and emotional skills are key to helping kids succeed in school, be prepared for the workforce, and become positive and healthy contributors to society. And graduates of the WINGS program continue to reinforce that research.

To help WINGS celebrate this incredible milestone, Liz asked us to help them tell the story of WINGS from three distinct perspectives.

We couldn’t wait to get started. First, we had the incredible privilege of spending a day at Burns Elementary School, getting to know the WINGS For Kids Leaders, meeting and interviewing former Principal Lynn Owings, and interviewing WINGS Founder Ginny Deerin. Of course, we also had the opportunity to see (and film) the WINGS For Kids program that afternoon and let me just say: the energy was infectious and inspiring.

Several weeks later, we had the chance to meet and interview Sh’Kur Francis, a WINGS For Kids alumni, minister, Emory University graduate student and intern at the Mayor’s Office. Sh’Kur’s insights on what the program meant to him were as powerful as his personality.

As an agency, we’re fortunate to hear stories from people from all walks of life as part of our job. Giving people the space and platform to tell their stories is something we simply love to do, and we can’t thank Liz, Principal Owings, Ginny Deerin, and Sh’Kur Francis enough for giving us the chance to do it.

 

Lynn Owings: School Principal & WINGS Cheerleader from WINGS for kids on Vimeo.

Sh’kur Francis: Future Mayor of Charleston & Former WINGS Student from WINGS for kids on Vimeo.

Ginny Deerin: The Woman Who Dreamt Up WINGS from WINGS for kids on Vimeo.