First Steps School in La Crescenta is the first school in the area to partner with the Armenian Educational Foundation (AEF) to provide tangible assistance to students in Armenia. For over 60 years, AEF (aefweb.org) has provided financial assistance to Armenian students and educational institutions in Armenia and Diaspora. One of AEF’s many educational related projects is to provide school supplies to students attending the village schools in Armenia and Artsakh and, since the start of this program in 2007, 15,000 students have received school supplies from AEF.

For every new or existing student that enrolls in First Steps’ Summer Program, First Steps, through the AEF, will donate a backpack filled with essential school supplies to a deserving student in Armenia. This donation will be fully funded by First Steps at no extra cost to the parents.

“We, at First Steps, wanted to empower young children by introducing to them The Art of the Small, how small actions can have huge impacts,” said Kathy Ebrahimian, director, First Steps School.

“We hope through this endeavor our students can experience firsthand the great feeling of giving a gift to another child without even having met them; a child that speaks the same language and has the same cultural roots as them but is not fortunate enough to have the essential tools that our students have at such an early age. A backpack filled with school supplies, which in reality is quite a small gift, can truly change another student’s life. The act in itself will cause a trickle effect and continue making the world a better place, one student at a time,” said Ebrahimian.

For more information about First Steps’ Summer Program and the The Art of the Small cause, contact the school at (818) 957-6364.