"As you walk into EyeSeeMe Bookstore, one can easily be mesmerized by the beautiful decor, diverse children's books and a warm learning environment," STL Partnership noted in a piece, headlined "Making a Difference in the Community, One Book at a Time," about how the bookstore is handling the Covid-19 crisis.
Founded by Jeffrey and Pamela Blair in 2015 in the St. Louis Promise Zone area in North County, EyeSeeMe Bookstore's "goal is to help bridge the cultural divide, so that African American children can benefit from exposure to literature that respectfully mirrors themselves, their culture and their families," STL Partnership wrote.
"Raising African American children, we found it very difficult finding literature that represented them. We would search the web to find positive imagery for our kids also," said Jeffrey Blair. "This was one of the main motivators for the start of EyeSeeMe Bookstore."
During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the owners had to rearrange the operation of their business and have been able to secure a Small Business Resource Loan through the STL Partnership.
"The STL Partnership has been great providing resources and a pleasure to work with," said Blair. "Due to Covid-19, we are not able to interact with the public or host story time at our location like we used to. Our calendar was full of events that have been cancelled also. Everything basically changed overnight."
Despite the challenges, however, he is eager to continue to serve the community: "People are grateful to have this resource of an African American Bookstore in their community and our books are culturally diverse for all children to enjoy. We want to continue to stay in business and make a difference as long as we can."