In January, we announced our new name, Boyds Mills!

After 40 years as the Highlights Foundation, it’s been refreshing to lean into our new name. We’ve certainly had a number of people ask us, “Why did you do that?” And that’s a natural question. Why would an organization that has been known as one thing for 40 years decide to change its name to something else?

I am happy to share a few of the reasons below, but over the last three months, it’s been fun to really lean into our new name and what it means for us.

Through this name change process, we’ve come to a deeper conclusion that we are a literary arts nonprofit with a specialty in children’s literature. It seems silly to say this now, but by changing our name, it’s helped us identify more clearly as a literary arts organization that serves storytellers working to create stories for children and young adults.

Exploring What Makes Us Special

As part of the process, we really spent a lot of time internally and with our board thinking about what it is that makes us unique. We know there are three key things that make us special:

1. The quality of our programming, thanks to the incredible teaching of our faculty who come to us from across the spectrum of the children’s publishing world.

2. The quality of care we provide to our students. We have always believed that if we want storytellers to provide the very best for children, then we need to treat them with the very best care.

3. Our retreat center at Boyds Mills. The setting, our quality of care for storytellers, and of course, the food, all make for a magical experience at Boyds Mills.

As we’ve been embracing this new name, we’ve also been embracing what it means to be a literary arts organization. It helps us describe who we are to people who don’t know us.

Previously, if I was meeting someone for the first time and they asked where I work, I would say, “the Highlights Foundation” and people would start to bring up childhood memories of Highlights magazine or talk about how their kids are subscribers. Now when I say, “Boyds Mills,” they don’t know what to think, and it gives me a chance to talk about what it means to be a literary arts organization and run a retreat center where we focus on teaching adults how to create stories for kids. Our new name gives us a chance to talk about what we do.

Also, this winter, when we saw a grant opportunity from the Literary Arts Fund; we said to ourselves, “Hey, that sounds like us.” And we applied. We’re eager to hear how our application fares in their grant review process.

ReFlecting On Who We Are

It’s been refreshing to go through this process to review who we are, what we do, and why we exist to serve storytellers. It’s still all about the readers, but we continue to recognize the only way for us to help get great stories to kids is to nurture the storytellers who are so passionate about sharing their stories with young readers.

Part of this reflection on who we are also feels like a “growing up” moment for our organization. When the Highlights Foundation hosted its first event in 1985, the faculty and staff were all part of the Highlights editorial team. And many of the writers who attended those early Chautauqua workshops were aspiring to write for Highlights magazine. Over time, as we developed our own faculty and our own reputation, our audience expanded to serve storytellers publishing throughout the entire industry.

We’re still thrilled for our connection to Highlights. Our retreat center is located at the home of the founders of Highlights magazine. And our family, descendants of Garry and Caroline Myers, those founders, still gather at Boyds Mills each summer to celebrate 80 years of family supporting the idea that children are the world’s most important people