I've been wishing and desiring and craving to write so badly, while working on a very important project - that deserves only my undivided attention - I forgot to ask myself 'why'.
Why do I write? I write because I love to write: check! I write because it is one of the few things I can do really well: (not being arrogant, just something I've learned to accept after years of self-doubt and criticism) check! I write because I like to delight, entertain, enlighten... readers/listeners with stories: check! I write because I can't help it (lifelong addiction): check! I write to give meaning to my being: (want to get the best out of me by putting it actively to use): check! I write because I chose to make this a living: (even if I starve trying) check!
Last Sunday, December 6th, our foundation (that promotes the pleasure of reading in Aruba), finalized the pilot of our Buki Bum Project 2009; a reading promotion campaign that started out slowly, leaving us - the four team members alias volunteers alias Board - clueless. We were giving away FREE bags of new books to all parents with children born in 2006, after they participated in the workshop 'how to read aloud to my child?' So, why was the attendance so low (at first)?
During four weeks of heavy PR and an intensive reading promotion campaign, our foundation made an important discovery: we realized we couldn't change the world (not even an island) in one month. We couldn't make people love books, if they never had the experience of being read aloud to as a kid. We couldn't even guarantee, if the participating parents (that got their free package of books, including the tools and info, how to put these gifts to practice) would actually take the books out of the bag.
Buki Bum wasn't an irreversible virus we were spreading around; a bookworm that would penetrate into the brain, overpowering the mind, causing massive addiction to reading. Hélas, it was merely an idea, a desire for improvement, a concept that was applied all over the world and with proven results, that we thought we could easily adjust to our environment, making it work and thus a must for every family with smaller children to include in their daily lives.
Three days ago, yes, the Sunday I was talking about earlier, our foundation decided to expand the age group from all born in 2006, to all parents with children from 0 to 5 years. We wanted to round up our Bookstart pilot with a Book Bombardment by giving as many families as possible, the opportunity to fill their homes with the love of books. See some of the results here:
