Straight from Stark Video Series: Episode 3 with TomTod Ideas

Posted on June 17, 2020

In our third Straight from Stark episode, hear from Joel Daniel Harris, executive dreamer at TomTod Ideas. As a nonprofit with a service model centered around being with middle school students in-person, the new social distancing guidelines required TomTod Ideas to quickly adjust so that it could continue providing resources to middle schoolers, their educators and the community.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

  • ways TomTod Ideas has responded to challenges raised by COVID-19 including remote learning
  • how the organization has continued to creatively empower middle school students and educators through digital programming
  • the new plans for TomTod’s digital summer camps, which includes virtual and augmented reality activities for the first time

While much has been uncertain over the last few months, TomTod knows that middle schoolers still exist and need support more than ever, as many of their normal support systems are missing or significantly changed.

Daily Adventures, referenced in the video, can be subscribed to at http://tomtodideas.org/subscribeme, and are delivered every Monday with a week's worth of content. Educator Explorations are on hiatus for the summer, but they are intended to resume this fall.

TomTod is just a couple weeks out from the start of Camp What If @ Home! Starting July 6 and running for three weeks, each day will include an hour-and-a-half of live, online, whole-camp activities with camp staff and other campers, along with additional activities that campers can explore at their own pace. Live and self-guided activities will include a mixture of video chats, augmented and virtual reality, games and design challenges. A box of materials will also be dropped off at camper houses in advance with all the supplies they'll need throughout camp.

The TomTod team is preparing to support educators and middle schoolers this fall, in whatever form that takes. Several of its funding streams have been directly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, but the organization remains committed to empowering middle schoolers to use their imagination and empathy to explore and create ideas that help their communities to grow and thrive!

To learn more about TomTod Ideas, visit www.tomtodideas.org.

About TomTod Ideas
TomTod Ideas is a dream incubator for middle school students that helps their imaginations hatch into realities that impact the world for good. Through a variety of immersive mentoring experiences, TomTod partners with middle school students to implement their ideas for the common good.

About Straight from Stark
Straight from Stark is a new weekly video series where you will hear directly from dynamic leaders in our community about how their organizations are creatively continuing their services and making a difference.

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