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Earlier this month Besty Bird at Fuse 8 said of Playing by the book “this site just pours its heart into each and every post“. She’s right. I’ve always been told I wear my heart on my sleeve, and today is no different. Except that perhaps today’s post is even more personal than usual. It’s about something that has profoundly touched my heart.
Photo: Olgierd Pstrykotwórca
Two months ago today a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region in New Zealand’s South Island. My thoughts immediately flew to Christchurch resident Bronwyn, a reader of my blog, a person I’ve never met, I’ve never even spoken to, but with whom I had a small connection thanks to comments here on Playing by the book. As it happens we first “met” via last year’s International Postcard Swap for Families (I do wonder what unknown friendships and consequences lie ahead as a result of this year’s swap!)
Upon hearing the news I wanted to let Bronwyn know I was thinking of her and her family, and to do something to help her and the others affected. A few short tweets later I was happy to hear that Bronwyn and her family were safe, their house was damaged, but they were alive. We exchanged some ideas and very quickly these coalesced around two ideas ; working together to get books quickly into welfare centres for those who had lost their homes and setting up a scheme to pair families from around the world with families in Christchurch to send a book parcel as a sign of friendship, support and solidarity through a very difficult time. To find out more, you can read the original blog post here.
Thanks to the incredible, humbling, heartbreaking kindness of strangers Bronwyn and I worked together and got approximately 565 books into welfare centres and care packages to provide families with something to enjoy, some relief as they started to try to move on and rebuild their lives.
I want to thank so very much author Justin Brown, Nic McCloy from Allen and Unwin, Julia Marshall of Gecko Press, Darnia Hobson, Emily Perkins, Rachel, Ngaire Mackle and Nikki Crowther
for sending books and vouchers to Bronwyn for distribution in Christchurch.We also paired up 50 families from the UK, US, India, La Reunion, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand with families in Christchurch, some of whom had lost everything including all their books. I want to thank, honour and celebrate these tremendously generous people who reached out, who shared their love of books and extended a hand of friendship at a time of need.
Amy, Valerie, Zoe, Vicki, Debra, Shelley, Bonnie, Sonya, Jax, Elizabeth, Melanie D, Patricia, Melanie C, Ami, Sandhya, Kathleen, Sheonad, Rebecca, Jean, Jacqueline, Jane, Bridget, Maria-Cristina, Annette, Christina, Katherine, Anne, Susan, Jan, Holly, Keris, Janelle, Alexandra, Sue, Dee, Katherine W,
I’ve loved children’s books forever, but it was only two months ago that I decided to profess my love out loud by blogging about them. Since then, I feel like I’ve discovered this whole new world of bloggers who share the same love and passion…and it almost makes me sad to have not been aware of it before. I truly believe the past two months reading and writing about children’s books has changed me.
I say all this, because your most recent post really touched me and solidified those feeling I just mentioned. How truly AWESOME it is that you were able to make that connection with someone so far away! And make a difference in the lives of so many families! Again, awesome!
Let me just add that I look forward to reading your posts.
Kind Regards from Peekskill, NY
Natalia.
Natalia Ortega-Brown recently posted..While You Are Sleeping
What you did was a wonderful thing.
Three Australian picture books on your theme of helping others are:
* Amelia Ellicott’s Garden by Lilliana Stafford & Stephen Michael King
* Nobody’s Granny by Tess Brady
* Leaves for Mr Walter Janeen Brian
All should be available in libraries if not still in print and at shops.
That is an amazing thing to do. Go beyond the thought and actually make it a reality. Well done you both.
It really touched me.
Melitsa recently posted..10 Tips for a Fun Family Evening That Won’t Break the Bank
Thankyou Maggy, Ali and Melitsa.
One thing that really came home to me was that if you just give people the chance, they want to help. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to help – with Christchurch, and then Japan I think we all felt overwhelmed, like it was/is just too enormous and awful for us as individuals to make any difference. This project (for want of a much better word) gave us all a way to make a small difference, and those small differences have added up to make a bigger difference.
I agree that what you guys did was a wonderful thing — my kids have been really stressed and upset and getting those books and knowing someone was thinking of them made a world of difference. To cap it off my middle son, who is not a confident reader, has flown ahead in his reading thanks to wanting to read his new books by himself in bed at night.
Thank you a million times over for the idea, for carrying it out and for making my kids happy. Special thanks to Amy and family who were so generous to my kids. Between you all, you really did make a huge difference.