Getting close to the Magic - a Volunteer’s journey

By Sherlyn Assam, Little Green Pig volunteer Story Mentor

Sherlyn pictured with children at The Imagaination Station after-school club

Little Green Pig was exactly what I needed…even though I wasn’t looking for it in the first place.  

Community work is really important to me, so when I wanted to find another volunteering avenue, I wondered how I could use what made me happy to help my city. As a former nanny, I love working with children. As an avid reader, I love stories. When I fondly remembered being a reading buddy for primary children, I visited my favourite bookshop, Afrori, to see if I could help children read. Instead, they suggested trying Little Green Pig, an after-school creative writing programme. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but as a professional writer and editor, I also love telling stories. Close enough! I decided to sign up as a volunteer.  

Though I was nervous because I had never taught writing, I quickly realized that the children in our program didn’t need someone with a teaching degree or an impressive CV. Every session, the kids rushed through our doors with hungry stomachs and a desire to share stories from school, home, and their holidays. They needed listeners. They needed friends. And sometimes, they needed people to remind them to write the ideas dancing through their heads.  

It was beautiful to see their imagination collide with their favourite memories and hopeful dreams. Some children were quick to write. They only needed one prompt before they grabbed a pencil and began scribbling. Other children preferred drawing. I asked questions to encourage them to try the exercises and they illustrated what they described in our conversation. Some children loved oral storytelling. The best thing I could do for them was write in their journals as they dictated their tales to me, so they would feel uninhibited as they found their voice. There was no “right” way to tell a story. Even when a child swore they had nothing to write about, our quick conversation could lead to a short paragraph. I could see them realize they had the magic in them all along. And because the children felt free, I witnessed grins and furrowed eyebrows as I encouraged them to create the stories they wanted to read.  

This reminded me that my first draft didn’t have to be perfect, either. Together, the kids and I jumped over the hurdle of being afraid to be “bad” at writing because they were met with cheers if they managed to read one sentence of what they wrote to their group. And long as we kept writing, we could make things better.  

Of course, the kids weren’t always in the mood to journal after they’d spent a full day at school. Sometimes they just wanted to talk, eat, and play with the stones they were meant to be writing about. Sometimes, I let them. You need to live to write. The children know this. It’s probably why they loved the games at the beginning of each session. It allowed their creativity to play.  

Going to a Little Green Pig session felt like paddling to a secluded island. No matter how much work I left on the mainland, it disappeared when the kids arrived ashore to create adventures about dinosaurs, time travel, the origins of their names, and the crystals they dug out of the 

sand. When I say Little Green Pig changed my life, I think about the funny, daring, inquisitive, kind children who saw themselves in the narratives they wrote. I think about Eleni who memorized her stories and even drew a picture of me during her spare time (it’s hanging proudly in my office). I think about Holly’s historian brain laying the foundation for her epics. I think about Marco, whose impressive knowledge of politics drove the plot of his sagas. I think about the kids squealing over my rings and my hoop earrings getting bigger each week. And of course, I remember my last session before moving back to Canada, saying goodbye to the children I’d spent the past six months with. I still miss them and the giggles we shared hunched over our journals and biscuits!  

Volunteering with Little Green Pig was a magical surprise.