On Tuesday morning, I was extremely excited and enormously relieved to reach the target for my crowd-funding campaign. The campaign was to cover the costs of self-publishing, ‘The Curse of Grandma Maple!’ a book for primary school kids that features a rainbow family. That evening – happily exhausted – I wrote this to say, ‘Thank You’.
I love what we just did.
I love that 188 people financially supported this project and many more shared and promoted it. The big bucks donations were critical, as were the dozens of $10 donations – and everything in between. It was, truly, a team effort. Thank you.
I love that people were excited and enthusiastic about the project from the start and recognised the value of something as simple as seeing yourself in a book. We’ve all grown up not seeing ourselves in books – or anywhere else for that matter – so we get what that means.
I love that straight parents supported the project because they wanted their kids and grand-kids to read about rainbow families and to know there is difference and diversity out there. Be in no doubt, our allies were with us all the way on this.
I love that our community is organised and networked and helps itself, and that support was wide-ranging. Pledges came not just from friends and family and people with whom I’ve worked, but from complete strangers. I’ve googled a lot of people recently!
It was a pretty intense three weeks and a very intense three days. I took the dog for a walk this afternoon without my phone and that felt really good. When I got home, there was an email from Naomi and Carlie, my editor and designer: “Congrats!” it said. “Let’s get stuck in!” So we’ll be getting stuck in pretty soon and once we’ve met with Matt, I’ll have an idea of timelines and I’ll let you know.
I talk about our families, our kids, our community publicly all the time and I am always inordinately proud to do so. I love how we embrace parenting and how we do it differently. I love how we meet the challenges of every day with generosity and creativity. I love how we protect our kids from the crap out there and how robust and resilient they are as a result. And tonight, though I’m completely knackered, I couldn’t feel more proud.
I love what we just did.
Thanks.
Jac
