We all had a great time catching up and chatting about the whirlwind project. I still can't believe it's over, but am truly grateful for all of the wonderful people I met along the way.
I was so caught up with the excitement at the end May that these pictures of the 30 Ways in 30 Days wrap-up event at Ethereal were never posted! Thank you again to all that came out to celebrate on this night--there were many more--I was terrible at capturing pictures of all that swung by! We all had a great time catching up and chatting about the whirlwind project. I still can't believe it's over, but am truly grateful for all of the wonderful people I met along the way.
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Thought this was on day 30, I forgot to ever hit "post" on this event that I had on May 19th! Check out all the love that was spread at Cup of Commonwealth on this day before I wrapped up the project at the Ronald McDonald House that same evening. I spent many days at this AWESOME coffee shop in Lexington brainstorming, having meetings, writing blog posts, and drinking copious amounts of coffee. It only made sense that I'd have a final event here! We invited the entire community out to "pay it forward" by writing a sleeve for anyone or any organization that each person was grateful for. These were free for anyone who came to redeem the ones that described them, all on the house!
Owner Salvador Sanchez flew in and was here for the whole event. What a guy--this place rocks! And all the coffee? On him. Woah. I'll let the pictures speak for the success of the love we felt on this day! Oh my. The inevitable has happened. We all knew I couldn't possibly stop at day 30, right? It was just a matter of time before I would have to return to some of these places. Today, I went back to the Habitat ReStore. I was originally going to do some landscaping at a Habitat build site but due to all of the rain in the forecast, the build was cancelled. So instead of working with Jeremiah today, I got to go see this lady at the ReStore to do some heavy lifting and moving!
When I came through the doors this morning to find Cat, she greeted me with my mug, already FILLED WITH HOT COFFEE. She knows me too well already! As she handed it to me, she said, "I only drank out of it once...." Before we started our shift, got to meet yet another incredible person doing a crazy-amazing project. Nathan, who originally studied in Lexington, is currently on a project biking across the country and working with Habitat for Humanity throughout his stops. This project is called Bike & Build in which groups of young adults travel throughout the country, pedaling for affordable housing projects in which they trade their bikes for tools throughout their expedition. Woah. Who knew stuff like this existed?! While Nate stayed back with a crew at the ReStore, I was a part of the "Decon" team this week with Dez, Andy, Trevor, and Nick. We were headed to an Extended Stay to get all the chairs and artwork from the third floor while they remodeled. Lots and lots of trips up and down the elevator, hauling and Tetris-blocking later, we finally had the entire truck full and ready to take back to the ReStore. Nick was literally turning blue. It almost looked as if he was about to pass out from lack of oxygen until we realized his handkerchief was leaving blue residue all over his face! (Ok, now that I uploaded the picture, you can't really see this... but... it was funny. I promise.) Learning how to work the lift gate.... Time to unload! We brought these back into the store after making room, and people flocked to them, standing next to their chairs to "reserve" them while we scrambled to figure out how much to price them. They were popular! Today was a short day but I was so excited to come back and work with this infectious, energetic bunch. I almost bought half the store before I realized that I will be leaving for San Francisco in 2 months....I can't believe how quickly it's coming!
If you are looking for a place to work for an entire day or a few hours, I highly suggest checking out the ReStore or a Habitat build day. Check out my first couple of posts here that I did for part of my "30 Ways" for more information! Day 11: Habitat Build Day Day 8: Habitat ReStore With the project coming to a close and a little bit of media covering the 30 Ways story, I have been asked frequently by friends, followers, and curious minds what ignited the desire to design and accomplish such a feat. I normally tell the story about the account management application sparking the idea, in which one question asked me what I would do with 30 days if I could do anything. That is what initially got the ball rolling, but there was a little more to it than that before I officially launched the blog and started to spread the word. There were only about 24 hours from the idea to initiation, so I didn't do any research at all on this. The idea was original (as far as I knew), and I didn't go Googling whether or not anyone had done anything similar. I was so determined to take this adventure on that I knew I'd compare and get discouraged if I did so. I was going to take the bull by the horns alone, whether anyone came along for the ride or not, and let it evolve into whatever shape it happened to mold itself into. I would not fail. It just wasn't an option. This is what happened with my head. I even took a picture because it illustrated in a small sense what I was feeling: After this happened, I felt immensely stressed. Somehow the brain-to-paper purge only partially alleviated the need to squeeze out all of the clutter in my head. I wanted to watch something simple, light-hearted, and "good". I turned on Netflix and flipped past Friends, Gilmore Girls, Idiot Abroad... then stumbled upon "We Cause Scenes", the documentary behind the hilarious group called "Improv Everywhere" that started in NYC years ago. If you haven't heard of this group, it started with two friends creating simple pranks that caused a small disruption, albeit a positive one, and got people talking. The describe themselves as "a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents." One of the most famous projects was the "No Pants Subway Ride" in which they recruited a handful of people to step onto the subway wearing only boxers, no pants, one by one, on consecutive subway stops. None of these pants-lacking individuals acted like they knew each other and carried on normally. They would try to carefully film the reactions of people with skillfully placed cell phones, but remember, this was before the days of iPhones and sufficient cameras. Even in the absence of quality videography to load to their webpage, they began to gain a following for these public pranks. This was before the days of blogging, though what they had started was inevitably what we would now call a blog. People started emailing the two out of nowhere and wanted to be a part of this group, which began to grow exponentially. Though they avoided using the word "flash mob", these were the types of explosive projects that they would assemble all over the city. It was simply a movement to cause laughter and happiness.
That's when it hit me: yes! A happiness movement! Why not create some kind of project that would create happiness, do something good, and possibly snowball into other people wanting to join and come along for the ride? What if I could get a following and not only challenge myself, but challenge others as well to come with me? What if I could go from "Katie doing 30 Ways" to "the 30 Ways team"? It was then that I decided with the blog--something simple and catchy that would be very straight-forward and be user-friendly to read. I would make it clear what the goal was and created a public calendar for anyone to see what events were coming up in case they wanted to attend one. At each event I then attended, I invited the nonprofit employees or volunteers to come to another event. At the same time, they were also creating a ripple effect. For example, I met Jordan Parker of National Bank at a benefit for The Nest, who invited me to come to a Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky 5K that I wasn't aware of. I went to that, and met a PCAK employee named Casey Yohe. Casey then came with me to about 10 other events and truly became a part of my 30 Ways team. This kind of crazy effect kept happening! This is what I had hoped for, but knew in my heart that whether or not it actually developed into such a movement, I would still be successful. Once I started to get a following and "repeat" individuals, I realized that small businesses were also interested in getting involved. I was able to also start putting business names, business owners, and sponsorships for the "day" assignments. In the end, I had both discovered and created a crazy network of nonprofits, small businesses, new and old individual do-gooders that became intertwined in ways that they hadn't known they could be before. Since the completion of the 30 Ways, I have been emailed many times by people wanting to meet with me just to discuss the project. Others have emailed me letting me know that I have inspired them, and wanted to know how they could expand or do this in their own city. I've heard stories about personal projects that were similar to the magnitude of this one, and have been excited to collaborate with them throughout the 30 Ways and after. A few people simply said that they weren't aware of many of the nonprofits that I highlighted in the community, and thanked me for bringing them to their attention so that they can now get involved. My hope is that I will continue to inspire and get to meet these people, then see what they can create with their own abilities and time availability. I can't emphasize enough how big I want to make this idea, how much I want it to spread. Whether it's 30 Days or 200 days, 30 hours or 30 minutes, helping 1 person or 1 animal, I encourage you to truly Pay it Forward to get involved in your own community. Learn about the people, the resources, the issues you didn't know existed. Learn how you can help to alleviate or even solve the problem. Learn about the other "do-gooders" in your area. Get inspired. Collaborate. To put it simply, I challenge you: Do Good. After wandering into Third Street Stuff during the final days of 30 Ways, I accidentally bumped into the Lexington-famous Tanya Torp for the first time. We embraced each other in a wildly excited hug though we had never met prior to this day, only aware of one another's journeys from Facebook and through word-of-mouth. She is, as we have coined the term now, the"epic do-gooder", behind Step by Step. This organization is Christian-based and focuses on young, single mothers raising their child or children through mentoring, prayer, education, crisis intervention, and so much more. I unfortunately never got the chance to help them during my project, but was elated to get to meet this woman in person finally.
After we talked a bit about my project, she asked me, "So what have you learned about yourself?" I didn't give it much thought and said, "well, it wasn't really about me. It was about all of these wonderful causes that I wanted to discover and share with the community." Nu uh. She wasn't having that answer. She looked at me again with fierce eye contact and said again, "I want you to think about that. What did you learn about yourself? Now, you take time to think about that question and I'm gonna come back and ask you. You reflect on it. Then, I'll be waiting for your book to come out." So of course, she had my wheels turning. What did I learn about myself? What did I learn PERIOD from this whole experience? I absolutely learned above and beyond what I ever thought I would, or what I had originally expected to learn in the process. So without churning out a half-effort response, I am taking time to reflect on this while I take a chance catching my breath after the project has now ended. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you have learned from the 30 Ways project and blog, if you got a chance to catch any of the articles. Did it inspire you? Speak to you? What are your thoughts and takeaways from all of these organizations that you may not have known about in Lexington? |
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June 2015
Welcome!My name is Kate and I have been in Lexington, Kentucky for a bit over 3 years. After interviewing for a position in which I was asked, "what would you do if you had 30 days to do anything?" I made a terrifying decision: I left my comfortable full-time office position to truly challenge myself to the answer to that question. My mission is to work with 30 local organizations and individuals in 30 days and document my experience here to create awareness in our community. Categories |