Local Educator Talona Coleman Keeps the Fun Going

Back in the spring, Talona Coleman performed a puppet show for children in a Philadelphia neighborhood.

These children had experienced upbringings that were more challenging, Coleman says, and it was evident by their blank stares and sad faces that “the children weren’t happy,” as she put it.

But as the 53-year-old educator started her puppet show, their faces began to change. Slowly, they started to smile.

After the show, a girl approached Coleman and pulled on her shirt.

“I want the fun to keep going,” she said.

Coleman, a resident of Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood, does her best to do just that for children all over the city.

For 20 years, she ran an educational program called Heaven Sent Childcare. But for the past two and a half years, she has pivoted to focusing on literacy. She visits neighborhoods to read stories, host puppet shows and organize sensory play activities and craft projects.

Each summer, she visits four camps a week to organize the same activities.

Her goal, she says, is to build the child’s “vocabulary, multisensory skills and language.” “At some of the locations where [kids] attend school, it’s just not available,” she says of these activities.

All of the activities are fun, but, Coleman observes, the puppets really have a way of connecting with people.

“What I like about it is they really begin to get excited as they see the movement of the puppets, as they see the colorful colors in the puppets,” Coleman says. “It goes beyond sitting and listening to a story. If they see a visual thing, it’s so much easier to grasp what they’re learning.”

Coleman annually visits the Waterview Recreation Center at the end of her block. She also visits eight to 10 other camps run by Philadelphia’s Department of Parks & Recreation. At each place, she hopes to help kids build their skills and escape reality for a little while.

“I want to take children’s minds off some of the things they may be dealing with,” she says. “And bring some joy in a short timeframe.”

It’s something that Coleman is quite good at, according to her friend Latoya Riggins, an early childhood marketing specialist who once had Coleman as a client.

“Every time I get off a Zoom with her, I feel energized,” Riggins says.

In addition to her camp visits, Coleman has written two children’s books, “I Am Important” and “You Matter.” She is also in the process of releasing a new series of three books, titled “I Am Not Afraid,” “I’m Brave” and “A Children’s Guide to Going to the Pediatrician, Dentist and Eye Doctor.”

Coleman wants kids to write, too. In July, Coleman will host a young author competition at the Kids in Business expo at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Children will submit their stories beforehand, and then Coleman will pick a winner. She will then illustrate the book and help with its release. Proceeds will go back to the child author.

Through this project. Coleman wants to let kids know that “no matter what walk of life you come from, you still have potential.”

Coleman herself is not rich, she says. But she has had to work hard for “everything that God has allowed me to accomplish.”

“They have the power to change their destination. And, once they become what they want to become, you have the power to turn around and help someone else,” she says.