Feel Good Friday - The Valentine Project

Valentine’s Day is next week and if you’re looking for a unique way to celebrate the holiday, consider The Valentine Project.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Danville, Kentucky, the goal of The Valentine project is “for all children whose lives are affected by cancer or a chronic illness to feel special and loved each Valentine’s Day, and to cultivate compassion year-round through offering volunteer opportunities that bring out the love and kindness in us all.”

Founders, and siblings, Gregory and Michaela Margida started The Valentine Project because they knew families dealing with cancer or chronic illness can often feel isolated and stigmatized. They wanted to “spread love, hope, and joy by sending packages brimming with loads of love and smiles, zero stigma attached.”

Children up to 21 years old are eligible to participate in the program and can register to receive a personalized package on Valentine’s Day. Siblings are also included in the outreach! Currently, packages are being sent to eligible children in Kentucky, Ohio and California.

In addition to the packages, The Valentine Project runs a program called Kindness Cards. Created by volunteers like you, Kindness Cards are meant to serve as a break from health concerns and their main purpose is to add an unexpected burst of love when least expected. It starts with you making or buying some cards, writing a fun message or joke, and sending them to The Valentine Project. They’ll take care of personalizing, addressing and mailing the cards to kids throughout the United States. Unlike the packages, Kindness Cards are sent out all year long. If you know a child who would like to receive a Kindness Card, you can sign them up here. 

Since they began, The Valentine Project has worked with over 9,000 volunteers to send 7,187 Valentine’s packages and 721 Kindness Cards. That’s a lot to love!

If you’re ready to become someone’s Valentine this year, you can use the Valentine Matching System to find a child to support. You can also make some Kindness Cards, visit The Valentine Project’s Amazon Wish List to buy supplies for their packages or make a donation.

As always, help get the word out about The Valentine Project on social media. Follow them on Facebook and on Instagram @the_valentine_project. Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

Feel Good Friday - Poemgrams

Happy Feel Good Valentine's Friday!

As you know by now, I like to use the Feel Good Friday posts to talk about the little guy. To share a story you may not have heard of before. Well today, I'm mixing it up and giving a shout out to PayPal. Here's why.

For the last eight days, I have been one of 12 poets taking part in a the Poemgrams project. People would send in email requests or chat with us live and we created personalized poems on demand, for free just in time for Valentine's Day.

The response was fantastic and it certainly kept me on my toes. I wrote 221 poems in 6 days - more poems than I have written in my entire life up to this point. Although mine were all of the rhyming Dr. Seuss variety, I still had two men tell me my poem brought a tear to their eye and one deployed solider say it was like I read his mind. Poetry is powerful, y'all.

Today, an improviser will be in San Francisco reading poems live for a select few. This will be filmed and, I'm sure, available online soon enough.

While I can't share the poems I wrote for any of the people, I will share a poem a man asked me to write about Diet Coke, his eternal happiness.

Diet Coke, I love you,

what more can I say?

I need to have you in me,

each and every day.

I'm going to tell you something,

even though it's sappy.

Diet Coke, you make me,

eternally happy.

If you'd like to read more about this project, follow the link to this Wired magazine article.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Pillow Fight

That's right.  Pillow fight.

Thousands of people gathered in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on Valentine's Day to whack each other on the head with pillows.  Really.  How could I not go?

In preparation for the big event, my friend Danny and I went to two Targets and a Kohls looking for feather pillows but they were all sold  out!  At least the ones priced under $30. That's what we get for waiting until Saturday afternoon to go shopping.  We settled on  some crazy fiber filled pillows in the hopes they wouldn't burst open and made our way downtown.

There were a ton of people with pillows: some in pjs, some wearing bandannas like train robbers, and some with little kids on their shoulders.  

As the clock on the Ferry Building chimed 6:00 people raised their pillows over their heads and with a shout of "They can take our pillows but they can never take our freedom!" began whacking at each other like they were moles at a county fair.

In the middle of the plaza it was too crowded to get a good swing - and being short it was very easy for people to whack you on the head.  After swinging my pillow at random strangers for awhile, I moved to the edge of the crowd where the sensation of imminent trampling wasn't as strong.

We broke off into a splinter group which had formed a circle creating a feather-filled Thunderdome of sorts.  "Two men enter, one man leaves!"  It was much easier to run in and out of the fight that way and make sure you didn't lose an eye.

After an hour, the fight was still going strong, but we had breathed in enough feathers for the evening and both had places to go so we left.  

Would I do it again?  Yes.  Would I shop for a pillow earlier than the afternoon of?  Yes.  Would I wear a bandanna and/or pajamas?  Yes.

See you there in 2010!