HOPE for 2013 - Please help us spread HOPE in an effort to shine light in the dark places...
Hope for the Flowers
December 20th, 2012 - Sending HOPE to SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY & NEWTOWN, CT...
Dear Friends of Hope for the Flowers,
Our Website and plans are definitely “UNDER RECONSTRUCTION”.
With the ending of our Kickstarter project in April, which had dominated our energies for some time, Una and I took some time to rethink our approach to creating an animation of Hope, and how best to continue the development of the beautiful community of support which has been shown by both the substantial pledges toward the Kickstarter goal and the excitement we have experienced on Facebook and hearing your personal stories, which we love. We have decided to put the Hope film on the back burner indefinitely while we work on other projects related to Hope for the Flowers and celebrating Hope's 40th Anniversary this year. Una also gave birth to a baby girl named, Lucy, this past October so motherhood is taking most of her energies these days as it should.
Yesterday, we received this email and knew instantly that we had to help:
{{{"My name is Bryan Ripley Crandall and I work in Fairfield, Connecticut. We are currently grieving the tragic loss at Sandy Hook Elementary School and like many, I'm looking for a way to do something positive. I am the director of an organization of teachers in Connecticut through the National Writing Project. I've been in this position for one year and we learned today that one of our teachers in our network is a literacy consultant at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We also have three other teachers in their school district.
While trying to make sense of this violence, I remembered when a teacher read to my class Hope for the Flowers. I was 18 years old at the time. Then, as a teacher, myself, in Louisville, Kentucky, I often bought Hope for the Flowers for students facing difficult times.
I want to do something for the teachers we work with in Newtown and more importantly, I want to do something for the students.
I am wondering about ordering 4 class sets (n=120 copies) so I can distribute them to the teachers we work with. I am hoping they can be shared with their colleagues and students.
As I sit in my house processing the event from last Friday, and the huge impact it has on our community, I remember the power of this book. I feel we need it right now in southern Connecticut."}}}
Since we have not been able to raise the massive funds needed to produce a quality animation of Hope for the Flowers, we have decided to redirect the money raised through this Paypal account to bring Hope to the community impacted by the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy and we Hope you will join us so that we can send them lots of Hope to help them through their grieving process. We hope those of you who have made contributions will understand and we will be reaching out to each of you personally in the coming days.
You can also help us deliver more Hope to the children of Sandy Hook and the community of Newtown, Ct. by making a donation below through Paypal link (on the website: www.hopefortheflowers.org or sending a check made out to:
Friends of Hope for the Flowers
86 Elm Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
(please note this is a fledgling non-profit that was incorporated just this year to help plan and organize for both Trina's and Hope for the Flowers' legacy and we do not yet have our 501c3 tax exempt status so your contributions are NOT tax deductible ~ we hope you'll join us and donate generously anyway.)
You can always e-mail us with any ideas or questions at inhope...@gmail.com.
Thank you so much in advance for your support and sharing Hope!
In hope always,
www.hopefortheflowers.org
Follow us on facebook:
ps - we plan to personally deliver the shipment of Hope for the Flowers in the beginning of 2013! Below is an example of an email you can help by forwarding onward that our friend Linda has already created below. We hope you feel inspired to join our efforts to shower those in grief with some hope.
Below is an email I just sent to my friends and family. This went out to people who will
again forward it to THEIR circle of friends and family… on and on.
Please feel free to copy and paste it into an email and send it to ALL OF YOUR
FAMILY, FRIENDS AND GROUPS that will support……
The emails below show the sequence of events, from the initial contact, to Una's
response… and gives the website that has the wonderful book, and the PayPal
link to donate….
Please do pass it forward……
Thanks, we are already up to several hundred dollars!!
Linda Rogers
****************************************************************************
Hi Friends and Family,
Please take a moment to read the below, and hopefully send a bit to help with
this really good thing…. whether it's a dollar, or ten or ?? whatever you want
to send. Chip in for the kids…. this book is a wonderful way to reach out.
Please send what you can… and then forward this to your network of friends
and family. Please.
Thank you and love to all this Christmas.
Linda Rogers
From: Linda Rogers [mailto:timshe...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 1:09 PM
To: ww...@googlegroups.com; Tatia (tat...@comcast.net)
Subject: Sending Hope to Newtown
Dear Butterfly Family,
There is a movement started to send copies of Trina Paulus' wonderful book
"Hope for the Flowers" to the children of Sandy Hook elementary school in
Newtown, CT. The request for these books came to Trina & Una, from Bryan Ripley Crandall
who works with CT teachers. He has asked for 120 copies but I say we shoot for
200, then perhaps 600 which would be enough for every student.
You can read about Trina Paulus' book here:
The books will be hand delivered to the school. The author has given
permission to price them at about $8 each, which is a great discount on her part.
If you would like to give a donation, below is the PayPal email address to use.
All contributions made through this Paypal will be used to provide copies of Hope to the students and teachers
of Sandy Hook Elementary and other in the community of Newtown if there is an surplus of support.
http://www.hopefortheflowers.org/index.html
There is a PayPal button on the Hope for the Flowers website home page. You can
go there and read the reviews on this book - it is perfect for a gift to the children,
just perfect.
I am sure there will be a wonderful butterfly memorial release once it warms up,
and what a nice thing that will be to go with the books being given.
Several groups are being contacted, teachers groups, the Hope for the Butterflies
organization, and of course, the butterfly farming community.
I had been searching for a way to reach out, to be able to DO something….
and then Una's email arrived and it presents us all with an opportunity to do
reach out, however small it might seem in the magnitude of the community's grief
and unbelievable loss.
Send a dollar, send $100 - send what you can…. all donations are equal - all
are appreciated. We have $50 already!! (update as of 10pm on 12/20/12 the total is:
$683.60
We will be sending announcements to the various group lists to let everyone know
what donation totals have been achieved!
Happy Holidays to everyone and thank you.
Linda Rogers
************************************************************************
Email from Bryan Ripley Crandall to Una McGurk and Trina Paulus of
Hope for the Flowers….. and Una's response to Bryan underneath…
Hello.
My name is Bryan Ripley Crandall and I work in Fairfield, Connecticut. We are currently grieving the tragic loss at Sandy Hook Elementary School and like many, I'm looking for a way to do something positive. I am the director of an organization of teachers in Connecticut through the National Writing Project. I've been in this position for one year and we learned today that one of our teachers in our network is a literacy consultant at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We also have three other teachers in their school district.
While trying to make sense of this violence, I remembered when a teacher read to my class Hope for the Flowers. I was 18 years old at the time. Then, as a teacher, myself, in Louisville, Kentucky, I often bought Hope for the Flowers for students facing difficult times.
I want to do something for the teachers we work with in Newtown and more importantly, I want to do something for the students.
I am wondering about ordering 4 class sets so I can distribute them to the teachers we work with. I am hoping they can be shared with their colleagues and students.
As I sit in my house processing the event from last Friday, and the huge impact it has on our community, I remember the power of this book. I feel we need it right now in southern Connecticut.
Bryan
Bryan Ripley Crandall, Ph.D.
Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield, Director Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions Fairfield University - Canisius Hall
1073 N. Benson Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
************************************************************************
Dear Bryan,
Thank you for reaching out to us! My name is Una McGurk and I work with Trina on all things related to Hope for the Flowers and butterflies (we both raise Monarch butterflies in the summer in NJ). While we can only imagine the enormous grief of the family and friends and all those close to this senseless act of violence, we join them in grieving for the children and teachers that were lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary school murders as does the entire nation.
I just spoke with Trina and read her your email. So the short answer is "Yes whatever we can do to help you and these young people through this process". Trina would like to offer you a discount but she also suggested I reach out to her publisher, Paulist Press, as they might also want to be involved and more able to help.
Thanks for reaching out and sharing what Hope for the Flowers has meant to you! We hope it can help the people of Southern, Ct as you suggest. Let's be in touch and see how we can best coordinate this effort going forward.
In hope always,
Una McGurk (for Trina Paulus)
--
The Hope Team