www.marlibox.org

MarliBox is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) social enterprise chartered and headquartered in the District of Columbia.

Sponsoring

All sponsored MarliBoxes will be distributed directly to children in need via established community and nonprofit partnerships. We also welcome open donations!

Purchasing

We are happy to offer the option to Purchase a MarliBox, or to Purchase 1, Sponsor 1. If you choose either of these options, you will receive the signature MarliBox, displayed below. Shipping is included in pricing. Please complete the Mailing Address field in the donor form. Marliboxes will arrive within 2 weeks of purchase.

Gabriela Marli’s Story

I’m so happy to share our journey with you. At 18 months of age, our pediatrician told us that Gabriela was displaying symptoms of a Sensory Processing Disorder. Since birth, our sweet baby was a sensory seeker, not understanding personal space, had a high threshold for pain, constant need to touch people, enjoyed deep pressure (like really tight hugs), and a persistent screamer, coupled with severe anxiety, particularly at nighttime. It all made sense, but our challenge was finding strategies and methods for easing her need to touch and cravings for intense movement. I had the privilege to be a stay-at-home mom and learn ways that I can nurture her development and ease her anxiety. I began incorporating sensory play into her daily routine to help her satisfy her cravings for touch. I found a unique way of aligning sensory play with literacy development by assembling sensory bins that matched the theme of our favorite books. This presented opportunities for language development, role-playing, and critical thinking. I saw my child’s eyes widen and brighten, able to explore open-ended play. For the first time, she was playing independently for long intervals and creating a space to explore a new world beyond her cravings. Moreover, playing with dough had a calming effect on Marli when she was feeling scared or anxious. And her imagination ran wild!

As an early childhood education specialist (Ed.S.), I realized that this type of play is so critical for all children, but especially those with limited access to the right resources. Not all parents have access to occupational therapists and treatment is often not administered until children are school-aged, which is often too late to intervene, as sensory disorders can often be misdiagnosed as ADHD and behavioral issues. So in 2018 I came up with the concept of MarliBox, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 that I saw a huge need for these resources in our underserved communities. Our young children are suffering with lack of social emotional connections and opportunities for sensory exploration due to the limitations set by a global pandemic. Children are isolated at home and lack critical interaction with peers to role-play and practice language development. Our boxes are meant to combat these challenges and promote the social-emotional development of all young children. Our work at MarliBox is not complete until EVERY child has the opportunity to explore, imagine, and glow!

Our Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide all young children the sensory tools to support their social-emotional learning and development through imaginative play and literacy exploration. MarliBox offers themed learning kits that celebrate diversity, inclusion, and social emotional learning. Each box includes a special book, two crafts, a sensory bin, and a parent guide to support their children’s cognitive development and ways to encourage unstructured play. With the exception of the crafts and suggested parent activities, MarliBox is intended to be completely unstructured and open to the imagination of the child.

Our Signature MarliBox

Our signature offering is the Diversity MarliBox. It brings together symbols of multi-cultural representation and provides learning objects that are open-ended and can be used when roleplaying narratives in the book.

Contents of our signature Diversity MarliBox include:

Book: We Are Welcome, by Alexandra Penfold
Two Crafts
Three balls of scented, nontoxic homemade playdough
Multicultural peg people
Multicultural crayons
People craft sticks
Pom poms
Pipe cleaners
An assortment of buttons
School themed trinkets
And more!

MarliBox Fundraiser

Annual fundraiser

Team Members