SHELTER AND PLAY BOXES DISTRIBUTED AROUND THE COUNTY

MY Museum and First 5 Monterey County have partnered to create bilingual Shelter & PLAY Family Fun Boxes for 2500 Monterey County families to engage with as they face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent evacuations due to wildfires.

As Monterey County families socially distance from close friends and extended family, they can still keep playing, learning, and—especially—keep curiosity alive. With the indefinite closure of MY Museum along with parks and family-friendly venues, families need new and exciting ways to play and learn at home. Each bilingual English/Spanish Shelter & PLAY Family Fun Box includes a variety of different activities including:

• A menu of five fun activity recipe cards for children of all ages
• Cook it! storybook
• Jump rope to teach about the importance of social distancing
• DIY mask-making activity
• And more!

"Collaborating on the Shelter & PLAY Boxes felt like the ideal opportunity to encourage families to talk, read, sing, and play at home," said Nina Alcaraz, Senior Policy, Advocacy, and Communications Manager at First 5 Monterey County. "Although families can feel stuck at home, with the Shelter & PLAY Family Fun Box they get to be creative and we get to continue to support 'out of the box' thinking."

Many thanks to our partners that made sure families across the county were able to access boxes including:

• North County: Pajaro Valley Prevention Student Assistance, Pajaro Valley Unified School District, North Monterey County Family Resource Center
• Salinas: Salinas City Family Resource Center, City of Salinas, Alisal Family Resource Center, Community Action Partnership for San Luis Obispo
• South County: Door to Hope, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, Greenfield Family Resource Center, City of Gonzales, Soledad Unified School District
• Peninsula: MY Museum, Community Partnership for Youth, All In Monterey
• Carmel Valley: Community Recreation Center

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