The Toley Ranz Foundation 4 Tolerance made its second appearance for the month at Camp Verde Community Library on Thursday, Sept. 15.
The foundation’s founder, retired educator and award-winning author Anke Otto-Wolf created the character “Toley Ranz” to help children learn about self-empowerment.
“The character represent a child’s gut feeling of wrong and right,” Otto-Wolf said. “Toley Ranz represents self-belief; children know through their intuition when something is wrong, but they don’t have the wisdom or the skills to say ‘stop’ or ‘halt.’”
Otto-Wolf’s Toley Ranz book series, “The Psst-Psst of Toley Ranz” follows the character “Sammie” as he learns how to believe in himself while navigating the difficulty of being different from his peers.
In the story, Sammie is teased by other children for preferring a purple pencil over a yellow one and deliberates whether or not to give up his favorite color in order to fit in.
Toley Ranz whispers, “Psst-psst! Listen to your heart in those moments when you don’t know what to do. You are awesome.”
Throughout the story, Sammie learns how to identify and communicate his feelings, such as sadness and anger, to his mother, who helps him navigate his situation without explicitly telling him what to do.
“Do you really want to give up what you believe in?” Sammy’s mother asks. “Please think about it.”
After careful consideration, Sammie makes a decision on his own.
“We’re talking a lot about raising children with pro-social skills,” Otto-Wolf said. “So how do they learn that? It’s not the school or the kindergarten teacher, it’s home.”
For parents, Otto-Wolf provides additional material, including “The Effective 3-Step Parent Strategy” which outlines steps for helping children through difficult times.
With the 3-step strategy, parents can learn how to “become an emotional detective” and “be curious, not furious” while learning self-care.
“You are the most important person in your life and your children’s; your self-care comes first, period,” the strategy says.
Roots of Bullying
Otto-Wolf said that in her experience and belief, children who become bullies do so because they lack the security and love of a family unit.
“Every child wants to be needed and belong, period,” she explained. “[Bullies] miss the love; they miss the family unit. That’s how gangs are created.”
“Children who are more introverted or shy, who don’t want to be looked at as aggressive,” Otto-Wolf said. “They are the vulnerable ones, and they are being attacked.”
Otto-Wolf described how her experience of working with inner-city school children in Virginia has informed her current work.
“In the inner-city schools — I had sixth-graders — and inner-city violence, no food, fallen apart families, I mean, war zone,” she said. “I had to, I was determined to help them, so I created an after-school program called Ceasefire Kids. We made quite a stir all the way up to the governor and senators. I was honored by President [Bill] Clinton for that.”
Otto-Wolf said she is pleased that the Toley Ranz program has been picked up by the Camp Verde Community Library because it gives children a safe space to come together, without pressure.
“They’re free to talk, it’s wonderful,” she said.
Otto-Wolf said she is looking forward to future presentations in Camp Verde and is also working on developing a program with the Cottonwood Public Library.
“I hope it spreads and the next one will be more,” she said. “You’ve got to start with something.”
For more information about the Toley Ranz program, visit toleyranz.com
