Today I celebrated the Summer Solstice by marching in a ukulele parade. I do not, sadly, play the ukulele, but I did play a mean plastic maraca and tried to sing along. Also, I broke a curse! This was the first official parade that I’ve ever marched in. I’ve been scheduled to march in several parades since I was a kid, but three now have been rained out. So with my merry band of about 10 people and my awesome coworker Pia, I finally broke my cancelled parade streak.
It’s important to note that I’ve had more coffee today than I’ve consumed in the past week put together. Reading over the letters of this blog post is like trying to catch sentences bouncing around a screen. My health has finally improved, and so coffee is my friend again. Also, I clearly needed an iced coffee to make the ukulele parade an even more beautiful experience. So if this post doesn’t quite make sense, have a coffee, then reread.
First of all: I’m excited to say I finally have another blog post in the works. Often when I get an idea like this, it’s important to let it brew for a while. But I want to wait until it develops into a post that I myself would want to read, otherwise, why ask you to read it?? So please stay tuned! Another post is in the works!
New blog post soon?! Hooray!
In the meantime…
I was inspired by an incredible Humans of New York post this week that raised, or as I’m writing this HAS raised over $530k for a struggling school in Brownsville, New York. If you don’t know about Humans of New York or this incredible fundraiser, check it out, and feel all the wonderful feelings about society: https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard.
Little Lions Need Our Love!
Over the past several years, I have had the joy of working in fundraising, and I am always reminded of the power of a community to support one another: with their time, their money, their enthusiasm. This HONY post was a reminder that a community of “strangers” is just as powerful. As cheesy as it sounds, we crazy group of internet strangers ARE one another’s community. We read each other’s posts, like each other’s cat pictures, and sometimes, raise hundreds of thousands of dollars so kids can have a summer program and a trip to Harvard. Go us!!
In the spirit of this belief in our incredible internet world, I am sharing the story of a group of Boston Public Middle Schoolers who are currently rehearsing, and completely self-funding, a production of The Lion King. A dear friend of mind is their teacher. She was once my director as well, and I know she’s something special to these children. They have held community fundraisers as well, but as all of you theatre people out there know, theatre is EXPENSIVE and they are doing all they can on a dime. I would love to tell them that we are their community too!
And what does that really do? It sends the message to students (or whoever the fundraiser is for) that human beings are out there are thinking of you. It is a reminder that we notice what you are doing, and you matter. Donating or sharing a link may not seem like anything against the world’s many problems. But a teacher can go back to group of adorable children learning “The Circle of Life” in a Boston Public School and announce that the world sees what they are working towards and they applaud you.
So if donating money isn’t an option (I get it, I am very often counting my pennies), and sharing the link is also not really your jam, please send them good thoughts and happy warm-fuzzy wishes for a good show.
Thank you for reading, and happy Saturday!
Now let’s feel super happy about our morning by watching a bunch of Australian actors sing The Lion King on an airplane because it is FABULOUS.
