Ellen Shane’s children’s book with a purpose “Emily’s Gift: The True Story of Sherlock and Jackson” hit the shelves earlier this month and will help fund mentoring programs for local students in need of one-on-one learning support. The author, Ellen Shane never had any intention of writing a children’s book or launching a foundation that has served over 700 students, until a catastrophic day in 2010 that changed the course of her life forever.
On April 3, 2010, 13-year-old Emily Shane was fatally struck by a car that drove off the PCH. From this place of immense tragedy, her mother Ellen Shane built the Emily Shane Foundation, which is dedicated to mentoring students like Emily who struggled in the mainstream classroom. Last year the foundation served 113 students including 33 students across three different sites in Santa Monica.
Two years after Emily’s death, a complete vision for the book “Emily’s Gift” appeared to Shane in a dream. In 2020, Shane transformed that vision into a printed product and will use the book’s proceeds to fuel her passion for helping struggling students achieve their full potential.
“In the dream it was almost like a message to me because I literally saw the entire book. The title said ‘Emily’s Gift: The True Story of Sherlock and Jackson’ in a yellow banner, and then I turned the pages and read the full story,” said Shane. “I immediately woke up and turned to my husband, who was pretty much still sleeping and I said, ‘oh my goodness I have to write a book’.”
“Emily’s Gift” tells the true story of how Emily helped adopt two adorable dogs, Jackson and Sherlock, and through much persistence, loyalty, and love taught her previously pet-less parents about the joys of pet ownership. The book, like the foundation, celebrates many of Emily’s wonderful characteristics, which included a sincere desire to help any living person or creature.
“Emily was really all about helping other people, so I wanted to do something that would have been very meaningful to her,” said Shane. “The thing she struggled with most was her academics because she had dyslexia and processing issues. She fell in this grey area where she didn’t need any kind of special education, yet she struggled in mainstream classes.”
Shane tried a whole range of educational specialists to help Emily with her schoolwork before discovering that a local college student was best able to relate to and support Emily. The foundation’s Successful Educational Achievement Program is built upon this model and pairs struggling students with university students or recent graduates for learning support. These mentors provide a service that extends beyond basic tutoring by also helping students with organizational strategies, study skills, and confidence building.
“Sometimes these kids have no one in their lives telling them ‘you can do this, or I believe in you, or you’re terrific’. I know that this program gives them that confidence and makes them feel like they can do that,” said Shane.
In Santa Monica the SEA program serves the John Adams Middle School, St. Anne School and the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Clubs, where students may be from Lincoln Middle School or Paul Revere Middle School.
When distance learning began in the spring, the foundation adapted to an online mentoring model. In several cases the mentors worked closely with families to help them set up and learn to manage their remote learning technology. In these cases, students were not attending their school’s distance learning prior to the mentor’s intervention, according to Shane, who seeks to expand the Zoom mentoring programs in the fall.
“We have twelve sites this year all over LA and Ventura County, and have helped around 700 kids to date. I wish it could be more. I feel frustrated at times because there are so many more kids who could use this, but I’m limited by the resources I have and I operate on a really limited budget,” said Shane.
The proceeds from “Emily’s Gift” are one way Shane hopes to increase funding for the foundation after her largest in-person fundraiser had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. People can purchase the book from the children’s books section of KP Publishing’s website or by going to bit.ly/emilysgift.
More information on the foundation can be found at emilyshane.org and people seeking to join the mailing list, provide a donation or volunteer as a mentor can email: info@emilyshane.com
