Do It For Daron

Today, as we prep for The MJB Foundation’s Bowl for Joy on Saturday if I may, I’d like to share a story of a different way to support children and young people with an altogether different challenge.

Tomorrow, Tuesday February 8, 2011 is Purple Pledge Day. Not sure what that is? You can check it out here.  

From the website: On November 13th, 2010, Daron Richardson took her own life. She was just 14 years old. Join us in inspiring conversations and showing support not only for Daron Richardson's family, but for all our young people who suffer in silence from the pain and stigma of mental Illness. Register your school or organization and Wear Purple (Daron's favourite colour) on February 8th.

Last Thursday when I encountered this thought on Twitter an idea started to form in my head.

You saw the smoke right?

What seems like years ago I took charge of buying new hockey jerseys for my Tuesday night C League Hockey Team, Brian’s Bail Bonds. I took a poll, made some suggestions and sent off the order. We were all excited, and then the jerseys arrived. We thought we were ordering jerseys with purple as an accent color. What we got was just slightly different. See...

Purple is one of my favorite colors so I have to confess I really like the jerseys. Most of the fellas? Not so much. Though we had waited almost 10 years to order the purple jerseys, we had new black jerseys only 3 years later, and the guys have been teasing me about the purple jerseys ever since.

From time to time we’ve had to pull out the “purple jerseys,” for example, when our colors were too close to our opponents and we were the visiting team so we had to find an alternative. I always heard about it. All in fun, but I heard about it nonetheless.

This season we are once again getting new jerseys, white ones to take the place of the “purple ones,” which as you can tell from the picture are primarily white. I have to admit I was a little sad about this. As I said, I really like the purple jersey and over time I’ve come to enjoy the banter that goes along with pulling them out every so often. Still, it does seem like it’s time to put them away. But do we really have to just discard them?

It turns out, we don’t. The send off will be a little nicer. The retirement of the purple jersey will have a very important purpose after all.

As you can surmise from the tweet Daron Richardson is the daughter of Luke Richardson former Columbus Blue Jacket Captain. So with tomorrow being my team’s night to play hockey, I sent the fellas the link to the website along with this message:

“We're all hockey players. A lot of us have kids. This affects kids and families and, well a lot of things and folks in so many ways. Let's wear the purple jerseys, (as many as we have) on Tuesday one last time for Luke Richardson and his daughter Daron...Maybe we can take a picture and then retire the darn things and I'll feel like maybe they were worth it after all, and you can all stop busting my chops about 'em.”

Of course, because they really are a great group of guys The Brian’s Bail Bonds Family was immediately on board with the idea. So, tomorrow night at 9:30 at the Chiller North we’ll take to the ice one last time donning the purple jerseys. We’d love it if you could join us, but if you can’t or you don’t think you can bear to watch C League Hockey we all would completely understand. We’re just happy our wives and families come and watch us... sometimes. :-)

Please take some time tomorrow and remember Daron and her family, give your child, teenager, or significant other a hug and share a good and positive thought for the many families and young people affected by mental illness.

Thanks!

Why I "Really" Support Libraries

Talking with my Dad on the phone yesterday he asked me what was going on politically here in Ohio. He lives on the east coast and seemingly loves to talk politics.

But I don’t. I don’t do public politics. Oh, I vote and I have preferences or parties I prefer and some folks might even know what they are, but outside of maybe 10 or so people that I feel comfortable having that discussion with - they don’t know because I told them. At best, they’re just guessing.

Publicly I preach purple because that’s truly what I believe. United we stand. Divided? Well, I think we look like idiots most of the time.

I try to stick to my guns with this too. It’s just one of those things...

No goofy signs in my yard. No diatribe commercials on my television. If you send me a postcard I keep it so I know who to strongly consider not voting for. If you call me, yeah that seals it.

Recently however, I’ve had to make a couple exceptions to my hard fast political rules. If you know me, you know why...

I placed a sign in my yard last May, August & November for The Southwestern City Schools levy I discussed here, that thankfully finally passed, and I placed 2 signs in my yard this year for library levies both that of the Southwest Public Libraries, Issue 8 and The Columbus Metropolitan Library, Issue 4.

I have the post cards. I even took a couple phone calls. In this case, that's okay.

Now, before anyone even asks let me say that I do not support these levies just because I work at the library. This is not about my job.

What it is about, much like the school levy is the kids. I support things that help children.

Just yesterday I talked to a woman who told me how much she appreciated the children’s librarian who read to her son when he was young and recognized him years later when he visited the library again, and how much that meant to him as well. Children’s librarians in particular are pretty magical people by the way.



(If you can’t see the video, click here.)

While the library provides a slew of services for adults, Job Help Centers, computer and business resources, the list goes on and on - I think that the library’s strongest contribution to the community is what it can do for kids. If you take a look at those kids and realize the benefits they see from the library, how much it means to them and their future,... - you know why this is so important.

Which is why I make the exception in case you don’t know me or didn’t already know...

Children in story time, teens in Homework Help Centers, Latchkey kids having a place to go and thrive after school, a welcome, learning environment that is not the street, where a friendly librarian might even sit down and play a game with a kid who looks like they just need a friend. Hey, I’ve seen it happen.

The best thing?

It’s free.

Okay, the levy might cost the taxpayer a few bucks, the price of a fancy meal perhaps, but to that kid who has nothing else, and nowhere else to go - Free is a pretty darn good price.

If you haven’t already please be sure you get out and vote tomorrow. As a personal favor, and I don’t ask for many, if you live in Franklin County, or you have a library levy in your own area please consider voting yes and making a difference in the life of a child.

Thanks!

Politics? Purple is Ideal

I'm wearing purple for the third day in a row. (Yes, I have 3, actually 4 I think purple shirts.) On Wednesday I wore purple because it is my favorite color and it helped me feel better. I thought that was the only reason at the time. Yesterday I just grabbed purple again and didn't really think anything of it. Today it hit me.

As I was watching the final election results and reading all the tweets on Twitter there was a call for no more red, no more blue - how about purple? I remarked at the time that I didn't think it was possible. What with all the hate filled diatribes, and mocking of all of the candidates, even as they were giving their concession speeches it didn't seem to me that the America we live in today was really capable of blending into purple.

I had planned on breaking down all of the attacks, from both sides in this space today, to talk about how wrong it is to hate because someone is different. But this is a lesson we all have learned long ago. Right?

Isn't it right to respect another's opinions or viewpoints even when they differ from our own? From the sandbox forward we've heard this, we've preached it, and we've passed it on to our children who we pray will pass it onto theirs.

When it comes to politics however we throw all that out the door. Anybody who is not on our side of the aisle is - well they're just not right. Right?

So here is my question - why does there have to be an aisle? Why do there have to be sides?

Shouldn't we all be on the same side?

I watched the president elect’s first speech after he won the election. He was very respectful in his comments toward Senator McCain, citing the service, the dedication of a man who can arguably be described as having given more for this country than any of us could ever give, or imagine we might give. The president elect gave a speech that was filled with hope. It was filled with promise. If we can accomplish even half of what Barack Obama talked about in his speech Tuesday night, well Wow!

But you know what? We can only do that together. We can only do that if we're purple, and we need to be that way for a long time.

The political process, the way the system works is broken. I personally believe it is damaged beyond comprehension. Still in four years the majority of our country will again repair to their respective sides of the aisle and we will start all over again, and it will happen again, and again, and again.

I'm not advocating the end of the political process and I'm not suggesting an 8 or more year term for our new president.

I'm presenting purple - the recognition that though there is a need to decide who leads, who is in charge, who governs, there is no need for the name calling, the bitterness, the hate. It is time to recognize that we are all ultimately on the same team, and we will succeed or fail together.

Please note - This post is not intended to support one side or the other. If you read it that way, I suggest you read it again. I don't believe in sides. I believe in purple.