Let’s jump to the end and work backwards, shall we?
I did not finish my manuscript. The failure project failed. (Succeeded? Shrug.)
I wish I could blame the craziness of 2020, but unfortunately my world turned upside down a bit earlier than everyone else. Yay?
In truth, it was a sort of blessing because I had an extra 6 months to learn to deal with disruptions and disappointment so I was a bit better prepared. (No, I won’t post the “Everything is fine.” picture. Why? Shrug.)
But I’m back to try again.
(And I kind of hope that if we’ve all just been prescribed a year of fear, frustration and dead dreams, then maybe everyone else might be okay in about 6 months time. Fingers crossed.)
The Weekend of Kindness is a yearly event organized by Charlotte’s Purpose in memory of Charlotte Elizabeth Carnaghan, who was stillborn on October 21, 2017. Charlotte’s family invites family members, friends, and friends-they-have-yet-to-meet to do acts of kindness and service during the weekend closest to her birthday. In 2020, the Weekend of Kindness will be October 24 – 25, 2020.
The mission of Charlotte’s Purpose is to support those grieving after stillbirth. Statistically, African American women are 2.2 times more likely to suffer a tragic loss like this in the United States. This is why many of the projects selected by Charlotte’s Purpose this year are focused on the Black community. We believe that small, purposeful kindnesses can have a big impact on the future of our country, even in terms of affecting something as daunting as systemic racism which is the root of the racial disparity in stillbirth rates. One way we intend to affect positive change at a local level is to increase diversity in K-8 classroom library offerings. Equity begins with understanding and understanding begins with exposure to experiences that are different than our own. There is no better place to begin exposing children to a wealth of human experience than through literature.
Every purchase of Weekend of Kindness gear helps the Charlotte’s Purpose group stock classroom libraries at Monarch Global Academy with children’s books that feature Black and Brown authors, main characters, and culture. Every kid deserves to see themselves reflected in the classroom library!
