Aisling Maki

As the world’s most popular sport, soccer transcends national and cultural boundaries and socioeconomic status. But in the United States, soccer participation comes with fees, transportation requirements and other barriers that have kept the game…

The adage “it takes a village” is the motto of Whole Child Strategies, which supports the Klondike Smokey City village by mobilizing a cross-section of community members to tackle children’s barriers to education. The three schools in Klondike Smokey…

EMPHASIS: Education Research has shown show early childhood education sets the foundation for academic success in elementary school, and Memphis’ independent schools boast a number of high-quality preschool programs with expert educators, innovative…

On Valentine’s Day a few years ago, a Binghampton boy named Donte Davis combined two of his great loves – art and the Memphis Grizzlies – when he painted a wooden heart featuring the face of his home team’s mascot. After he planted it in a neighbor’s…

A free camp at the University of Memphis instructed girls in how to launch their own businesses. Aniyah Harmon wants to open her own dance studio. Although she’s just 11 years old, she’s already gained more knowledge about launching a business than…

If you could capture your experience as a mother in a single word, what would it be? Delightful, ever changing? While our journeys vary, we share much in common, as we recognize the challenges and rewards that come with raising a child. The wonder…

Photo by Marci Lambert Stories by Jan Pierce, Stephanie Painter, & Aisling Maki Most of us can look back on our childhoods and bring up some great memories of a beloved family pet. Remembering a loyal dog or clever cat, perhaps even a canary or…

On a cloudy late May afternoon, the young men of the Sheffield High School Knights soccer team disembarked from the charter coach that carried them home to Memphis, after suffering a dramatic defeat at the state championships in Murfreesboro. That…

Katy Spurlock, director of education and dissemination at The Urban Child Institute, has had a varied career in which every step along the way seems to have led her right to where she’s meant to be. “I’m just passionate about what children – young…

The Urban Child Institute this month published its seventh annual “Data Book: The State of Children in Memphis and Shelby County,” focused on the forces, trends and factors affecting the healthy brain, social and physical development of children…

Members of the media joined the children of Ronald McDonald House of Memphis Wednesday, Aug. 15, for an outdoors tricycle race on the nonprofit’s campus at 535 Alabama Ave. Veteran Memphis radio anchor Bev Hart, Fox 13 weekend sports anchor Marcus…

Fifteen of the nation’s top junior philanthropists visited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis Thursday, July 19, to learn first-hand what makes the hospital one of the nation’s most well-known and trusted charities. St. Jude this year…

Inside Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital at 50 N. Dunlap St. is a corridor known as the Wishing Wall, where patients and their friends and family are invited to write down their wishes and prayer requests and leave them on the wall for the hospital’s…

So far this year, FedExFamilyHouse has served as a home away from home for more than 800 families whose children have received treatment at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. Last year, the facility at 918 Poplar Ave. – located a short…

Sister Barbara Spencer has been changing children’s lives for decades. As a founding staff member of Memphis-based Youth Villages, she’s been instrumental in its growth from a small nonprofit into a national organization that provides a wide array of…

For five years, Daniel Law Firm has been providing Memphis children and parents with a Worry Free Summer Camp. When the economy tanked, the husband-and-wife attorney team of Elizabeth and Ben Daniel wanted to do something to lift the spirits of the…

KIPP Memphis, which currently educates 500 students in grades five through nine at two schools, has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan that will include opening 10 collegiate schools educating roughly 4,500 students in North and South Memphis by…

When Sister Joan Byrne completed her high school education at a boarding school run by the Irish Sisters of Mercy in County Westmeath, Central Ireland, she made the biggest commitment of her life: to stay on and join the religious order. It was the…

Next to a full-size MRI machine at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital sits its identical miniature version, perfectly sized for a doll and decorated with friendly cartoon fishes and other smiling sea life creatures. The pint-sized play copy’s purpose is…