We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sandy Ciaramitaro a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sandy, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission of serving children grew out of the children’s book series I wrote. The Good Eggs series is a book trilogy that teach the important concepts of virtues, diversity, and service for elementary-aged kids. Since I was a young child, I always loved writing stories in school. As I grew into an adult, the idea of writing a children’s book kept growing inside of me. When I was finally ready to write, I wanted to to be sure that it taught about goodness. My process of writing kept on going and it ended up morphing into a series of three books. I loved the characters I created so much, that I felt I had to keep taking them on adventures, having them learn new things about kindness, compassion, and empathy, and passing along what they learned to other kids. Once I completed the book series, however, I still felt there was more to do, so I created my nonprofit, The Good Eggs Foundation, thus putting the books into action. The book chapters go through a year, once a month, so I modeled the nonprofit the same; each month I “egg” an organization that helps underserved children. I seek them out, ask what they may need for the month, and say “you’ve been egged,” and try my best to fulfill their request. Each month is something different. For example, I have provided bedding for children coming out of homelessness, provided summer camps with food and supplies, purchased hats and gloves, held Christmas gift drives, helped to build lending libraries and much more!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a teacher for 23 years, with a focus on high school curriculum, however, the books I have written are geared toward 6 – 12 year olds. The hope with The Good Eggs book series is that young children internalize the lessons that are modeled for them through the Eggs, thus incorporating the actions into their own hearts and minds, and keeping that compassion with them for a lifetime, while building strong relationship skills with others.

Becoming an author, founder of a nonprofit, and entrepreneur naturally grew out of my educational background. My love of learning and teaching, helping kids, building a brand, and serving the community are all things that drive me. The Good Eggs Foundation is set apart because it is the whole package; the book trilogy and the foundation are the main parts, but I also have a parent blog, kids podcast, newsletter, lesson plans and word search puzzles for the books, AND the first book has been made in to a series of 12 videos that have just been acquired by The Michigan Learning Channel, which is an affiliate of PBS. The reach of The Good Eggs is expanding quickly and I am very excited about that!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative in my case is to be able to serve children in need in order to help alleviate some stress from their lives. Seeing their smiles is the best feeling, because children deserve to smile and feel secure, and I am happy that I can do some of that through The Good Eggs Foundation and book series.

Another rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is that my vision keeps growing. Since it’s inception of writing the children’s books, this mission is growing bigger each day. In the near future, I would like to see feature films or a theater show for The Good Eggs series, delighting children everywhere. The characters are relatable and share a wonderful message of goodness and kindness. I envision myself signing books at these events and selling merchandise. I can channel the funds into The Good Eggs Foundation and create even bigger “eggings!” I would love to build playgrounds or provide scholarships or anything else that may be needed for kids. My imagination is endless!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I began The Good Eggs Foundation is October of 2019, things were going along great until Covid appeared. I was basically stopped in my tracks because I could not deliver “eggings” to places due to restrictions. I did not want to miss a month of “eggings,” so I had to get creative. I purchased gift cards and socially distanced dropped them off where I could to help underserved people and sent goods via mail. One “egging” that stands out is about a mom who lost her job due to Covid cuts. Her daughter loved to dance, but with the loss of income, the mom could not keep up with her daughter’s dance lessons. I was able to step in to provide those lessons and she danced via Zoom! That was a happy moment!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thegoodeggs.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegoodeggsfoundation/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGoodEggsFoundation
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegoodeggsfoundation/