Friday, December 22, 2006

Awards Presentation for The Kids of Mill Creek at The Library

Last night, Thursday, December 21st, was the awards presentation at the library for the student writers. I thought I hadn’t contributed enough in the last couple months to the One Word At A Time group and looked forward to helping set-up (which didn’t require much at all) and just being present in support of both our group and the kids. I had hoped to contribute a lot however not only was I not only able to hardly contribute an ounce of anything, I walked away with more personally than I came with.
Jerri did a wonderful job being the backbone of this initiative and the library and The Friends of The Library did as well. It sounded all cute and fun but turned out to be quite an inspiration for our group. Two significant factors stood out to me: one was when Rose said, “ . . .and some of us have been trying to write a long time . . .” and the other was the fact that I don’t ever recall having opportunities like these when I was a kid.
Rose motivated me to not get frustrated with lack of progress in my writing. She is obviously a little older than me and here she was talking to kids obviously a little younger than me. I don’t know if those children absorbed the lesson (which was for them) but I sure did. Keep going keep going keep going.
Maybe if I had an avenue to write outside my school curriculum way back when, I would be further along in my writing goals. I’d hate to have any child miss an opportunity to pursue what they enjoy or have a talent for.
I surely support Jerri and our group with any further initiative they have in mind along these lines. The slightest encouragement to write for the kids may turn out either a noble prize writer or, simply and significantly, someone who shares their spectacular talent with the world.
Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to help and I look forward to much more “helping” in the future.