Summer's End

It has been an incredible 12 weeks at the Children's Defense Fund, and I am amazingly grateful for the opportunities I've had this summer. I've traveled to conferences, met other young advocates, explored the wonderful city of Washington DC, spent time with a fantastic group of interns, learned to crochet, and more. But, as with all great things, it must come to an end.

As I get ready to pack up and head back to Rochester, I've been trying to figure out how to balance all the different things I want to do. On top of classes, dancing with BPG, services at Hillel, singing with Roc Hakol, knitting/crocheting, and learning to be an RA, I'll be preparing for my sister's wedding! At the same time, I'm currently keeping up my work on social media for The Truth 365, transitioning to watch over the new volunteers we're recruiting instead of doing it all on my own. It's going to be a busy semester, to say the least.

One thing I'm getting ready to restart is my keychain fundraiser for The Truth 365. September will be National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and we will see the first anniversary of Monique Williams' death, as well as mark what should have been Hanna Monte's 23rd birthday. At some point, you have to ask: when does it stop? When will we say, we've had enough? And then, once we've said it, when will we start working to make it better?

Photograph from Natalie's facebook page

Natalie Grace, a 3-year-old warrior, and her amazing mother have had enough for quite some time. They're tired of Natalie's treatments poisoning her body to try and get the cancer out, and they're sick of knowing that they're the lucky ones. When Natalie was diagnosed, the doctors knew that they could cure her. They knew that she would be ok. It has been nearly a year since little Natalie's diagnosis, she's officially in the maintenance phase of her treatment, and the light has appeared at the end of the tunnel. But in that year, how many other kids have met a different fate? Monique Williams wasn't one of the lucky ones, and 7 kids follow her footsteps every day in the US alone.

It's time to start working to make it better.

For just a $5 donation to Natalie's "send me a dollar" fundraiser, I will send you a keychain in the color & shape of your choosing. All you have to do is send her a donation, and then send a message to my Facebook page that includes either a picture of your card + donation if you send it in the mail, or a screenshot of your donation online. That'll be your chance to let me know what color & shape keychain you would like as well. In addition to hearts and bows (pictured here) I have previously made owls and flowers, and I am always interested in learning new patterns - peace signs, letters, animals, other symbols, you name it and I'll find a way to make it.

Will you help me be a part of Natalie's 4th birthday?

Knitting On The Go

One of my favorite parts of knitting (and now crocheting) is that as long as I'm not in the drivers seat, I am free to knit/crochet during my travels. I can sit back, listen to the radio or my iPod, and calmly create something out of nothing.

Which is exactly what I did during my 10-hour trip home from Tennessee.

The training was incredible, to say the least. The 4 interns in my department at the Children's Defense Fund joined over 100 other young community organizers for a training on advocacy, organizing, and nonviolent action. Our training occurred concurrently with the CDF Freedom Schools, whose 1,500 servant leader interns, site coordinators and project managers provide a summer of literacy enrichment to children across the country. In addition to our training sessions, we joined the Freedom Schools to attend Harambee each morning (a half hour of songs, reading, and general pump-up for the day) as well as evening plenary sessions (generally a panel of speakers to educate the audience on a variety of topics, such as movement building, closing the achievement gap, and more). In just one short week, we developed the skills we would need to return to our hometowns and build our own Children's Action Teams in order to better fight for the rights of children. Together, we created a network of teams that will establish strong relationships with local communities and begin to generate movements over the coming months, so look out for more information on my role in that.

Of course, I kept up with my other passion - my volunteering with The Truth 365 - all week as well. Because I was away all week, I put the pinterest and tumblr on hold for a bit and focused on the Twitter, which I was able to keep up with on my phone. Now, however, I'm back on all three!

This week has been crazy, trying to get caught up with sleep and get back into the swing of things here in DC. I have spent time reconnecting with old friends and exploring the city, as well as spending some time with my older sister.

But none of that is really that interesting, is it? Back to the crocheting.

Pictured below is one of my first complete crochet squares:

I'm probably prouder of this square than I should be, considering that it's a little bit lopsided and I'm pretty sure I dropped a stitch somewhere along the line. Regardless, I am getting better each square I complete and I'm learning new stitches along the way. As I mentioned, I hope to have enough squares to create a blanket by the time school starts in September.

Square count: 4 (hey, I'll get there eventually!)