The Jean E.R. Straub Storytime Yoga® for Kids Scholarship for Public Librarians

Jean working at the Rocky Mountain News Library

I am pleased to announce the Jean E.R. Straub Storytime Yoga® for Kids Scholarship for Public Librarians.

My younger sister, Jean, was a reference librarian at the Parker Library in Douglas County, Colorado. It will be the first to receive Storytime Yoga® for Kids materials in her memory. Jean also worked in many libraries and as a reporter at newspapers, including the Denver Rocky Mountain News, Boulder Business Report and Greeley Tribune. She had a master's in library science from Emporia State University.

The scholarship enables any public school or public children's library librarian in the United States and its territories to receive for free all downloadable Storytime Yoga® for Kids training materials and to use the Storytime Yoga® for Kids name, trademark and logo. It includes the At-Home Guides, Kids Yoga Story Kits and audios, as well as E-book copies of Storytime Yoga: Teaching Yoga to Children Through Story and The Treasure in Your Heart: Stories and Yoga for Peaceful Children. All you have to do is contact us.

Kathe Hudson is a long-time Master Storytime Yoga® Teacher and League of Yogic Storytellers Member. As a public librarian in Lafayette, Louisiana, she has elevated the art of kids yoga and oral storytelling in the library. She has graciously accepted to serve as a contact for other librarians to discover and share their work as they use the Storytime Yoga® materials. She has written many articles on her work in libraries with story and yoga, and scholarship recipients are invited to share with us their work using oral storytelling, books and yoga with kids in their community library programs.

"Jean Bean" as a little girl.

Public libraries are important places for children and families. My sisters and brother and I spent a lot of time at the Boulder Public Library. We loved books, words and knowledge, and it was a safe place for us to be. We loved our parents, and we witnessed our father's post traumatic stress from being interned in Japanese and Indonesian concentration camps in the Dutch East Indies as a child during World War II. Our mother was a creative writer and poet who wrote for local newspapers. Our childhood was traumatic, however, as our mother was mentally ill, abusive and destructive. The library gave us a place to be ourselves and teachers were there when no one else was available to mirror us and help us achieve a positive sense of self or to help us through grief, sorrow and trauma. Stories lifted us up and kept us company and gave us hope.

This trauma my sister and I experienced as children echoed through our adult lives, as we both struggled enormously with addiction, severe depression and other mental health issues. Over the years I have been able to use yoga and storytelling to help me heal. Yoga is my lifeboat and stories are my compass. Jean was brilliant, intelligent, loving and beautiful, and dedicated to her work. Her dark side of anguish and trauma, however, finally claimed her life.  Having survived several suicide attempts throughout her life, including one in which I found her when I was in high school, Jean committed suicide at the age of 42 on December 29, 2011.

Jean and I, sometime in the 1980s. Boulder, Colorado

These days, public libraries are under assault and closing left and right. Privitization is attempting to take over the public realm. It is my desire to see public libraries experience a renaissance and serve the community and youth regardless of economic background through yoga and story to assist kids and families in peace, health and literacy, the main tenants of Storytime Yoga® for Kids.

Yoga naturally helps kids heal by calming the nervous system with breathing and relaxation techniques. Kids get in touch with their bodies and emotions and connect to their imaginations and inner life to self-regulate and find their centers for self-confidence and strength. Yoga helps to self-soothe, and the lack of self-soothing is a leading cause of addiction. Stories let us know we don't have to go the path alone and act as psychological guides. Narrative is an act of svadyaya, self-reflection, being able to look at ourselves clearly via the characters in the story that we identify with and make changes in our behavior. A storytelling yoga teacher and librarian acts as a wise sage to assist children in their journey, creating bonds and secure attachment and trust as a caretaker with his or her leadership.

Children's yoga in the library is flourishing. The library has been one of my favorite places to teach kids yoga and have performed several times at the Boulder Public Library and others. It is with great love and hope for all children to have access to learning and caring people through public libraries despite economic backgrounds. All children can find a safe place to learn, be cared for and care for one self in a public library. That is why I have made this scholarship in Jean's memory. It's for every child, as every child is me. Every child is Jean. Every child is us all and the whole world.

I'm delighted to give the first scholarships to:

• My dear sister-in-law, Shawna Lincicome of Westminster, Colorado who is the librarian at North mor Elementary.

• Jean's former workplace, The Parker Library in Douglas County, Colorado,

I hope you join us. Contact us. Namaste.

OM SHANTI

SERVICE IS JOY

In memory of sister Jean. I know that she is in peace. I just miss her so very, very much.

More Information on Healing with Yoga and Stories for Mental Health

• I'm excited to also announce the Facebook Group page of Healing Trauma Through Yoga, hosted by Kintla Yoga and I. If you are interested in helping children and adolescents as well as their families, including those of veterans and those affected by war, please join us.

• A Lifeboat and a Compass: Stories and Yoga to Help Youth and Families Heal is part of Storytime Yoga® for Kids and Healing – articles relating to using yoga and story to assist in mental and physical health, ADHD, depression, and suicide prevention for youth and families.

• Storytime Yoga® for Kids is also overjoyed to donate materials to Linkages to Learning at Highland Elementary School and Kensington Wheaton Youth Services, a program of the Mental Health Association County for their after school club. Located in Silver Spring, Maryland, KWYS' mission is to improve the well-being of children and their families through the collaborative delivery of school-based services that address the social, economic, health and emotional issues that interfere with the academic success of a child. The programs provides services at school sites to "at risk" children and families to improve performance in school, at home and in the community through mental health and social services.