November 20th, 2015 is Universal Children’s Day. So, today I’m choosing to speak about children and my commitments to provide environments that support the full potential growth for them. I bypassed commenting on some news this week because well, the events left me speechless. Let’s focus on the positive, though. Children. What I want to share with you is what I’ve done and what I’m doing for children in honor of #ChildrensDay.
What might surprise you is besides being a publicist which I started being at age 20, I’m also an award-winning curriculum writer. During undergraduate school, I worked for a Chicago-based publicist to work my way through school. In my early 20’s after college, I developed curriculum for early childhood education with the Cincinnati Zoo and Botantical Gardens. We had lots of fun. I produced puppet videos, wrote children’s songs and animal activities. At that time, I also was a children’s entertainer using art, theater games and more to delight birthday babes and their friends and families. I did that for about ten years. I was even a 5th grade teacher for a while. I’ve always held a strong conviction for my own education (thanks dad) and an even stronger commitment to providing educational environments and experiences for all children.
That’s why today my PR firm, Wasabi Publicity, supports “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” (TODASTW) foundation. They’re doing a new partnership (thanks to the White House) in 2016 with Big Brothers Big Sisters. The 2016 theme for TODASTW is “Sparking Aha Moments” and stay tuned here for ways you can ‘spark aha moments’ with the children in your life. (Hint: Soon, I’m going to be making a call for videos and it’s going to be a fun ride, I promise!) There’s even going to be creativity inspiration from Barnet Bain, an award-winning producer (What Dreams May Come, Celestine Prophecy) who recently wrote, “The Book of Doing and Being” (Atria, 2015) in which you can discover your creativity quotient.
In 2015, I heard from companies, like the Olive Garden, who involved children in their TODASTW day festivities nation-wide. See this video about how the Olive Garden suggests we use the kitchen to inspire children around pizza making. You can do this too in your kitchen! (Hello, Thanksgiving coming up!) Between now and Thursday, April 28th, 2016 (the next TODASTW day), I’ll be updating you on how to inspire the children in your life with real examples from people, companies, communities and schools.
Today, I’ll leave you with another client of mine who is making history, Monica Parker. She’s an actress, author and comedian who just wrote, “OMG! How Children See God” (Health Communications, Inc., 2015). What if you could have a pleasant, stress-free conversation about God without involving politics or even necessarily religion? Anybody breathing a sigh of relief? Seeing God through the eyes of children allows us to do just that, and this is the gift offered to us through comedian and writer Monica Parker’s new book. See the Huffington Post coverage on her new book. It will leave your soul smiling.
However you inspire children today or tomorrow, remember this. It only takes one person to make a difference in one child’s life. Reflect on who that was for you when you were little. Today, be that for a child you know. Then tweet about it so everyone knows you have a commitment to our children. #ChildrensDay
