Who Else Wants Their OWN Possibility Pillow?
This project started out what I "thought" would be a simple project. I help my Clients reach their possibilities and I decided that I wanted to Help Oprah Winfreys Girls at her The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy .
I figured" Hey these girls are getting a great leg up from pOprah, I'd like to help them to always remeber that they have unlimited possibilities and that they are in control of their own Magic. So I started the incredibly daunting task of trying to reach Oprah. If you lack determination at al… don't try this at home! What a task - and honestly… I never got to speak with Oprah. I did FINALLY speak with one of her Assistants - but that was after a TON of calls e-mails etc. More on that later.
I had Blind Faith!
So instead of just sitting around waiting to reach Oprah, I decided that I would get this "simple" project rolling. I bought whole bunch of fabric, a LOT of pillow inserts and had my Stars printed. Then I invited my friends and family to a fabric cutting party. When the day came for the Fabric Cutting, I honestly wondered "what if no one shows up?". "What if my dream just isn't anyone else's dream?" (Ok… truth be told I knew my kids would be there… I have leverage on them!) But I had butterflies in my stomach wondering if I would be there alone with them.
Thank God my worries were silly. I had a bunch of "Angels" descend on our gym turned into pillow factory! We had about 21 people there!
My Angels!
We Spent the best part of a day Cutting Fabric, and cutting fabric… and… cutting fabric. Oh we laughed and hugged each other a lot and really enjoyed the bonding we were having. It was very cool. In fact my Daugther Grace (she;'s the one holding the pillow in th picture aboe) said to me "Mom we're really doing this! Well I couldn't have been more proud. My daughter was learning what it was like to have a dream and follow through on it! That's when I realized the impact this was having on everyone. Hey… in this world, where we are all soooo busy, too busy to often offer a cordial greeting to a stranger, these Angels had given up there free time to be involved in a project that wasn't about their dream, but about helping someone they would never meet. It kinda renewed my Spirit in people!
I get the bad news
Fast forward a week or two and a lot of time on hold at Harpo, and a bunch of e-mails. I fiunally spoke with a human beingh at Oprah's organizartion and she told me that what I was doing was a wonderful gesture, but that the Academy was not set up to accept physical gifts, I guess a lot of people had wanted to help with clothes and furniture, books, and art supplies etc, but they were not set up to accept them. She said they could only accept financil contributions. Bummer.
Down but not out
So now what. I had 1 75 pillows in various degrees of done-ness. Now what?
Thank God for my Angels. My good pal Jane Gross really helped me stay on task. She discussed a local organization The Youth Continuum in New Haven CT. The youth Continuum has a mission to protect and promote the
well-being of at-risk youths and provides them with the skills necessary
to take advantage of opportunities for a healthy and productive future. It's a really good thing!
A New Cause!
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