Tumbled Words

Cropped image of third afghan photo taken by Shelly K. Tucker

I’ve written so many times about Shelly of This Eclectic Life and her dream to have 48 different people and then some create one afghan per child for 140 children who would attend Camp Sanguinity this summer, also known as Share A Square. This post is about the results!

She did not just dream it, she orchestrated the project, did more than her share, and her enthusiasm garnered a lot of help from the blogging world and even others outside it. It took the full year, but it got done!

Afghans were delivered yesterday! Read about it here - and while there, though Shelly will say, as always, we ALL did it, she was the force that picked up our slack, kept after her readers for help at the risk of alienating those that were there for her colorful tales and vignettes of life told Shelly style, and just brought out the best in many good people.

Not only that, she collected donations of $1,229.47 to help pay camp fees for the children! View the check here!

One person can make a difference. Shelly did, and yes, she was not an island, but I have a feeling had we not responded she would have made them all — but her family, friends, readers, and their friends and family, all came through for her - no, really, they came through for the kids! That is what the dream was all about.

Special thank you to Eric, her husband, for his part in the project and in supporting Shelly through it. All of us married or in a relationship either know or have an inkling of how difficult life can be when a partner takes on a project that overtakes the entire house and consumes life for a year.

It feels good to make a difference, no matter how small. So, for those of us who don’t have the time or skills to take on a huge project, just help with one or do one of the trillions of other little things that you can do each day to make a difference to someone else. Sometimes just an unexpected smile is all it takes to change someone’s day.

Note: Are you one of those people not getting the big deal of giving a child or teenager an afghan? Are you wondering what kids and teenagers could do with an afghan? Think they just let it sit on the bed? Yes, that is one possibility and I used Thursday Thirteen as an excuse to find uses for them, 17 things they could do with it - and kids and teenagers have a lot more imagination than I do.

Tags: make a difference, Share A Square, This Eclectic Life

Damien realized, I think, so many of us were either procrastinating, having trouble choosing which inspiring person to write about, or simply too busy to think out a great post right now. So he chose to give us a gentle shove - and an extension.

And shove he did, he linked to a group of us suggesting ever so gently (in my words) that we get the lead out and write! Now, what he really would love, instincts tell me, is for a bunch of us to post, including people who are new to his site. So, if you haven’t been introduced to Damien yet and there is someone you would love to write about, someone you admire, here’s your chance. And if you know Damien, come on, humor him, grin.

Damien loves to read and write about “people who use their common brain and inspiration to do amazing things.” That said he is also flexible about how we interpret his contest, we could admire someone merely for their personality. So, run over to Postcards from the Funny Farm, (the link is the quote above) read the rules and the prizes - and realize he has extended the deadline to late June.

It is a good thing he is flexible, because my first instinct was to write about how much I admire Shelly K. Tucker, aka This Eclectic Life, for standing behind her ideas, including Share A Square; for seeing a vision of something and then doing more hard work than one person should have to do on the project; while at the same time being smart enough to delegate with grace and appreciation. She is charismatic and has an uncanny knack of igniting desire to volunteer while also, finding time and heart to support her volunteers emotionally. I have written many times that I admire Shelly, though often it was probably disguised in my posts to spread the news about Share A Square or the need for bags or money or squares.

She sneaked in here, in the middle of my post about Damien — both quite intentionally and quite unintentionally:

• Intentionally because I could not talk about a contest that required writing about a person I admired without mentioning Shelly
• Unintentionally because, though my first instinct was to write about Shelly, my second instinct was to write about a specific group of people that I admire, whose role as inspiring people is lesser known in the blogging community. And this is where flexibility comes in.

That post will not be exactly what Damien is asking for… writing about Shelly was, but it is another one he inspired.

Now, you, start writing!

(P.S. Have I told you Shelly is amazing?)
(P.S. Have I told you how great Damien is about inspiring us?)

Tags: Amazing Visions Writing Contest, Damien, inspiring people, Share A Square, Shelly