Meet Kyron

“I come to Shoestring to learn—and I learn a lot here. I love learning about subtraction, and I’m still working on dividing. I’m not really that good right now, but I know I will get good-er as I progress and learn here at Operation Shoestring.” – Kyron 

Nine-year-old Kyron is confident, highly engaged with his teachers and his peers, and has a smile for everyone he meets. He’s very proud of his straight-A grades, and always has a question for an adult who stops to chat—from “Why do we use the ‘K’ to show thousands,” to “Do you think they make astronauts look out the window they take off or do they only have to do it if they feel brave?” At Operation Shoestring, we’re able to encourage that imaginative, compassionate mind and help Kyron feel like he and his ideas matter every single day.

His mother India says that Kyron and his younger brother Benjamin love coming to our afterschool program. “They just think it’s great,” explained India. “My boys love the games they play there, but they love learning even more. They talk my ear off when I pick them up and are just always so excited to tell me about what they did that day.” She says it means a lot to her that her children have an affirming, supportive space to go year-round, and she can tell Operation Shoestring is helping Kyron and Benjamin thrive.

Your investment in Operation Shoestring helps provide horizon-expanding experiences and opportunities for hundreds of children in Jackson while connecting their families to resources for a brighter future.

Afterschool and summer programs like ours protect children when they’re out of school and provide pathways to exploring and learning about the world around them. Kids attending Operation Shoestring also tend to outperform their peers not at our afterschool and summer program Project Rise academically and have fewer school absences than their peers not in our program. From Kyron, who clearly loves math and can’t wait to learn new, more advanced ways to divide and multiply, to six-year-old Benjamin, who loves looking through books with a buddy, time on the playground, and learning the foundations of reading and writing, our teachers, volunteers, community partners, and full-time staff all help create an environment that supports kids of all interests, personalities, and passions right here in the heart of our city. 

Kyron and his brother are just some of the many promising, caring, and inquisitive students here at Operation Shoestring. For kids like Kryon and Benjamin, the time spent at Shoestring adds up to more than just a fun, enriching summer or afterschool year—it equals more chances and opportunities. That’s an equation everyone in our city can get behind, even if they’re not a math whiz like Kyron. 

Kyron says that he wishes every kid in our city had a place like Operation Shoestring. “I want people to know that Operation Shoestring has a great afterschool,” he explained. “If your kid is kind of struggling in school, or maybe they need a little bit more time for schoolwork, you should bring them here—it’s really good here. It’s one of my favorite places, to be honest.” 

He also says that he loves going outside here and learning about inventors. “I hope if my teacher at Shoestring reads this letter about what I’ve learned this year, she’d be more than happy—she’d be proud.”

Kids like Benjamin and Kyron attend our Operation Shoestring to create, explore, and challenge themselves every day. And the lessons and skills they learn can have an impact on their entire life. Research shows that children enrolled in afterschool programs are more likely than their non-attending peers to graduate from high school and to have higher attendance in school overall. Through afterschool programs like ours, we’re closing the opportunity gap for kids in our city while planting the seeds for a more hopeful future for their families. Thank you for helping make that happen!

Supporters like you partner with kids and families in our community every day through your investments in Operation Shoestring’s children and parent programs. And that’s a real blessing for all of us! Thank you. 

We invite you to continue working with us this spring and summer to help create healthy and thriving self-determined lives for awesome kids like Kyron and Benjamin—and for all of us here in our community. We all rise together.