The Spitfire Club Empowers Girls in Alexandria
While I was preparing for my first Spring2ACTion event, I took Brandi Yee’s advice and skimmed the profiles of the participating nonprofits. Like many, I wanted to donate to organizations to whom I felt a personal connection. As a writer, editor and mom to a young daughter, The Spitfire Club’s bio had me: An extracurricular book club built around a collection of children's literature featuring strong, diverse, female protagonists. By creating demand for and building an inclusive community around diverse girl-positive books, The Spitfire Club enhances literacy and social-emotional skills, nurturing each Spitfire's love of reading, love of self, and love for Spitfires across all communities.
When Amanda Hazelwood, founder and executive director, reached out at the suggestion of our board member, Katelin Moomau, I did a little whoop! I was so excited to meet her and learn more.
Originally from Kentucky, Amanda moved to the area to attend American University and never left. She founded The Spitfire Club six years ago after a long career in nonprofit consulting. “My superpower is helping people start nonprofits!” she shares. “I had been sitting on this idea for a long time. The Alexandria Recreation division gave me the push I needed.”
With one child at home and another growing in her belly and due soon, she had been working on a playground project. “Lucresha Murphy asked me, ‘What are you doing when you're not fixing this playground?’ I told her that I was supposed to be starting a nonprofit for girls empowerment through reading, but that I was a little busy…”
A few weeks later, with her help, Amanda was piloting the program in Alexandria at the Nannie J Lee Rec Center, and it took off from there. “It was August of 2017 and I started a crowdfunding campaign and reached out to everyone I had ever spoken to. With this program, every kid is holding a book – not just enjoying the story– this is not story time.”
Leslie Figueroa with The Spitfire Club participants
Today, The Spitfire Club is reading with 86 kids a week, 90 mins a week at different sites all over Alexandria that include the Boys & Girls Club on N. Payne Street, John Adams Elementary, Cora Kelly Elementary and Community Lodgings. The program is for students in first through fifth grade. “There is a class set of books, and there are also ‘take home books’. Building a home library is pretty critical. We work with First Book, a nonprofit, that receives excess copies of books from publishers. They’re very discerning in what they buy and they’re high quality.”
Amanda shares that they spend very little time reading, and “a lot of time building connections with the reading, introspection and connection, STEM activities…interaction and movement.”
The program is about empowering girls through social and emotional learning. Though they focus on girls, anyone who feels at home in a program designed for girls is welcome. “92% of the kids we work with qualify for free lunch, and 81% speak a language other than English at home. We’re holistic in the work we do by building connections with the children’s families. One father shared that they have family movie night on Fridays, but his daughter, Natalie now wants to act out books instead. And that’s because of Spitfire. We’re not tutoring your child, we’re building a culture of reading. We want our kids to read in English and Spanish, and be proud of it.”
Amanda shares a story of a more recent arrival, a second grader having a rough time in school and being disruptive. She was reading at level A. They discovered that she was very bright, and was causing disruptions at school to distract others from the fact that she couldn’t read. Amanda read with her every Tuesday. She is now at a very proficient reading level and is off to GW next year. “Our goal is to retain kids, so we can grow together, and see how reading impacts their lives.”
Through Heather Peeler and ACT for Alexandria, Amanda was connected with a donor and their generosity provided the resources to make their first hire, Leslie Figueroa, program manager. Their summer intern is Katy Morejon Portillo, and she is Northern Virginia Community College's poet laureate and wants to be a writer.
This August, Spitfire will host their first week-long day camp which will include a trip to Planet Word in D.C. The Spitfire Club has also helped create the Alexandria Literacy Initiative, whose current members include Alexandria’s six literacy and reading nonprofits. “None of us are doing the same thing, but we're stronger because we’re working together. Advocacy…reading…it doesn’t take a break. We’re closely monitoring the new Virginia Literacy Act and how it's impacting schools and the way they teach.”
Interested in learning more? Spitfire is looking for volunteers to join the Mentor program. It requires an hour a week at the programming site where you’ll be paired with a small group of 4-5 kids. “We incorporate mentors into our lessons, there are team-based activities and a team name, and we electively read books together. Every mentor brings a different strength. One mentor was super low-key, Gen Z. Her table was hilarious, they told jokes and swapped shoes with each other. Another group’s mentor who is a social worker, showed her group how fun it is to journal…and they were sharing secrets! It’s a volunteer position and you do have to be available once a week during the day.”
Spitfire is also looking to add board members to its current roster of six. “We’re looking for people with a background in communications, or therapy or social counseling and emotional learning. It would also be helpful to have native Spanish speakers and parents, we need those perspectives to understand the lives of the children we’re working with.” Visit VolunteerAlexandria.org to learn more. The Spitfire Club also accepts donations.
When I ask Amanda her short-term goals, she says, “More staff, office space…the only way to reach more kids is with more staff.” Long-term goals? “A Spitfire Center, a retail space where there are books for kids to take, with structured activities around reading, a gathering space from cradle to career. That’s the dream.”
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