The Challenge

This idea is wholly that of Jen's from her oh-so-inspiring blog, "A Year of Living Charitably". When I read her blog, I felt challenged to see if I could do what she and her family are doing this year, extending some charitable act each and every day.

Won't you join us?

PS - I'm not a daily blogger, so if you want daily, definitely read Jen's blog. This blog is mostly for my own amusement. If you are also amused, please check back every once in a while.


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A Birthday Project

For my 45th birthday I decided to do a service project. I contacted service organizations in Portland, but they had all the volunteers they needed so I came up with my own project. The project is by no means finished, but the great thing about this project is that the doing of it has as much, if not more, impact as the finished product.

People need to tell their stories. They need to have someone listen to their stories and have them validated.

WHAT I DID:

I invited two of my closest friends to spend the day with me in Portland. I borrowed my daughter's video camera and we went around town asking women to tell us their stories of how they know they are strong, or what makes them stronger.

HOW LONG:
Probably only and hour or two so far - we were also having a great time talking with each other, enjoying good food, and celebrating.

IMPACT:
The women just lit up when they understood what we were asking of them. As they told their stories they all became more confident and stronger right before our eyes.

WORTH IT?

YES! This was an instant gratification project. We were able to see the impact we were having on the women right away. After listening to their stories, it felt like we had friends all over town - women smiling and waving at us when they saw us again. And I can't wait to go do it again - to reach out even more to those who are mostly invisible.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! This is a fantastic idea! I'd love to take up this project with my girls, too!

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  2. What happened? I don't have any other way to contact you except via comments, so here it is. Blogger changed their "Followers" format, and now I've lost you. In fact, it looks like you've lost all your follow links. Or you're backing off the internet (which I should do) or something's up. I hope you're alright!

    ReplyDelete