The Lit Advocate

Dear Families,

Happy New Year, and may peace, joy, and renewed hope follow you all as the year rises until it sets.

I want to take a moment to open my heart and pour out my gratitude onto you. Each one of you has been part of making what once seemed like a silly dream into a business and a new life for me and my family.

Thank you❤️

In 2020, when I left the classroom to start The Lit Advocate, I thought an in-home tutoring business and teaching students in the converted “she-shed” on my property was a real stretch—but I set about to fix up my classroom space to try and make it happen anyway.

Then you came to me in my she-shed.

When I took on a second location in Wesley Chapel, I didn’t know if my business would grow enough to justify the monthly rent to do so.

Then you came to me in Wesley Chapel.

When I hired our first, second, third teachers, I prayed I’d be able to keep my promises to them, that The Lit Advocate would grow enough to help sustain them.

Then you came to us and supported our growing team.

When we launched Hybrid Homeschool, taking on rent for a third location, I did not know if we’d enroll enough students to compensate the team of teachers we’d equipped for the program, or if our revenue would be sufficient to cover the fees to sublet space from Excel Music School.

Then you came to us at Excel.

When I founded LILLY Education Foundation, I did not know whether we’d find board members,

Community, or families interested in supporting a nonprofit mission like the one LILLY set out to achieve. I did not know if the medical office we identified in Zephyrhills would function as a learning center or if we’d have the necessary funds to make the necessary renovations to make it so.

Then you came to us at LILLY Learning Center.

Today, I stand before you to say “Thank you,” and I come before you as a living testament of the miracles that lie just below uncertainty.

If I can give you anything in return for all you have done to uplift this mission, it would be to impart on you this: There are blessings stored up for you when you leap with faith. When you drown out the doubts and the naysayers. When you let go of knowing how all chips may fall and move forward, even if your first few (or first thousand) steps are a little wobbly.

God has a plan for you. And it is so—sooo—much bigger than the brain can imagine.

I say this at a time when God’s plans have kept me in motion. Before I knew it, these plans were moving me beyond The Lit Advocate, in a similar direction, but on a different path than I set out for just over four years ago. While I have mourned this decision for some time, my spirit says that I cannot serve two masters—I’ve been holding onto my business as a backup plan, just in case things aren’t fruitful on this new journey of mine.

But in order to truly serve LILLY, I must leave the past behind me and put my full trust in the Lord. He brought me here, so he will provide abundantly for me and my family.

I have had to grapple with letting go of control to see that God is my backup plan.

…and if he dresses the lilies in beauty and splendor, how much more will he clothe me?

Thank you for being part of The Lit Advocate and each of my seasons over the past four years. Thank you for trusting the vision back when I was just a lone she-wolf in her she-shed, teaching phonics on a s**g rug. Thank you for being willing to see beyond the eyes, into my heart. Because you believed I could, I believed.

We are at the end of the process of rolling over all remaining services, including tutoring, literacy evaluations, and assessments over to LILLY, and we have worked day and night over the winter break to ensure LILLY’s tutoring department is robust and apt to serve the students and families seeking individualized services in the local community.

All families currently receiving services through The Lit Advocate will be rolled over to LILLY Education Foundation, and our tutors will remain on staff with us, just under a new name.

What will change for current families:

🌺Invoices will come from LILLY Education Foundation
🌺We will no longer be using TutorBird, and we will gradually phase out use of the software with a goal date of onboarding all families to our new platform by March 1
🌺Step Up service requests will be made to LILLY Learning Center, instead of The Lit Advocate

General Changes:

🌺The Lit Advocate domain will be re-routed to LILLY’s website
🌺All emails will be forwarded until the end of the Spring semester (May 2025), when emails domains will switch to permanent method of communication
🌺Calls to The Lit Advocate are being auto-transferred to LILLY’s line
🌺We no longer accept text messages on our business line
🌺All onsite tutoring sessions will take place at LILLY Learning Center unless otherwise noted and agreed upon by LILLY Team and family

Thank you so much again for all of your support and I hope you will continue to support us on this new journey as well!

To learn more about LILLY Learning Center, click the link below.
https://lillyeducationfoundation.org/

When a student says "I don't know," teacher Leslie Hernandez responds with, "Bravo!"

A community is a family of families ❤️🌺🥰🙏🏼

Step Up Families! Double-check you’ve submitted the Student Learning Plan if your child was awarded the PEP Scholarship. The Step Up team informed us that this is a common issue families are running into - as they are saving the SLP as a draft, and not completely submitting it for approval. The deadline is July 31st, so triple check to ensure your child will receive the funds they were awarded for the 24-25 school year 👀📚

IMPORTANT UPDATE: If you have a child who has been awarded PEP for the 2024-2025 school year, PLEASE double-check to ensure your Student Learning Plan for 2024-2025 has been completely submitted!

Step Up has informed us that they have *10,000* awarded PEP students who are still missing their SLPs for 2024-2025!

The deadline to submit your SLP to Step Up is July 31, and if you have not submitted it by that deadline, your child will not be funded.

NOTE: If you submitted or updated an SLP prior to mid-June, it was counted for 2023-2024, NOT 2024-2025.

We highly recommend that parents double-check their 2024-2025 Student Learning Plan status ASAP to ensure it has been fully submitted!

Check today's forum post for further details and instructions on how to verify that your child's 2024-2025 Student Learning Plan is showing as completed.

https://www.flhef.org/forum/pep-faq/urgent-pep-reminder-double-check-that-your-your-student-learning-plan-slp-has-been-submitted

We’re honored to see The Lit Advocate alongside the amazing Pasco businesses on this list 🙏🏼😍

Congratulations to all of this year's award finalists for the !
▪️BayCare
▪️Crestmark Pharmacy Service
▪️Garyline
▪️Infinity Aero Club Tampa Bay, Inc
▪️J.T.D. Enterprises
▪️Jons Gourmet Nutrition
▪️OpenBuilds
▪️Rocycle LLC
▪️The Lit Advocate
▪️TRU Simulation

Our LILLY Learning Center makes a debut on this month’s issue of Florida Women’s Magazine 🥰

“In the old days, education was done one way and if you were not able to learn in that atmosphere you might find yourself falling behind or dropping out and limiting your potential for the future, Today however, some educators are trying to create an atmosphere of learning that can meet individual needs and give those students who do not fit into the traditional mold an opportunity to learn and excel.

One of those educators, Lexa Duno, founder of the LILLY Education Foundation, will establish a base in Zephyrhills [which will have its grand opening] on July 27th…”

Read the full article on page 20! 😄🫶🏽👩🏻‍🏫📚

https://floridawomenmagazine.com/ -flip73/1/