This article features the Project of Excellence, a program that was designed to engage families in an interactive community-based school literacy program. The authors discuss how they created the Project of Excellence. Although the goal of the Project was to improve the reading skills of young children, the focus of the Project was directed toward the "missing link" in school-based literacy programs: the involvement of the families in the reading program. Families were given reading activities that they practiced and discussed during the monthly sessions and then were sent home to engage in these activities with their children. The five key elements required within a Project of Excellence include: (1) Leadership; (2) Passion; (3) Being of service; (4) Creating a space for allowing; and (5) Excellence.