The Shine a Light Campaign!

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group! is a supportive online environment for insecure writers. A big aspect of IWSG is the idea of giving as well as taking. The group organizers 'encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.'

In the spirit of this give-and-take code of conduct, I’d like to share a wonderful initiative by a friend of mine. My good friend, author and poet, Catherine Johnson came up with a brilliant idea recently called the Shine a Light campaign.

“I’ve decided to start a blog campaign on Mondays with your help using a hashtag like #shinealight to spotlight deeds of kindness/help.  If you hear of a story where someone did something to help someone else feel free to cover a story on your blog and use the hashtag #shinealight on Twitter.” ~ C.J.

 

My Shine a Light story takes us back in time a few years. It is about my grandmother, Nan Hefferan, who lived a life of impeccable service to others.

Nan gave to others her entire life. She served as a barrister in her small town in England and was known for ‘being fair’. She also held the position of County Borough Organizer for the Women’s Voluntary Service and was known for ‘being involved in many charitable works’. The charity initiative for which she became widely known however was the ‘Trolley Shop’. It was her idea to take simple items the rest of us take for granted like combs, and pantyhose, and fruit into the Workhouses on a wheeled ‘shop’, which my grandfather built by repurposing their old tea trolley.

Nan told me that the first time she and her women took the trolley shop, otherwise known as ‘meals on wheels’ into one of the Workhouses, it was an instant success. They had been through the entire complex of buildings, when Nan realized that the man in charge was hurrying her and her posse of WVS past the mentally infirm and disabled ward. Nan stopped him and insisted the mentally infirm and disabled inmates must be given their turn to ‘shop’ as well. “They have just as much right as anyone else in the Workhouse.”

 

Upon the door opening to the mental ward, Nan said she froze when a large woman lumbered across the room towards her. Though terrified, my five-foot-tall grandmother stood her ground. The woman drew up before Nan and reached up to stroke Nan’s face. “Nice,” the woman said and smiled.

 

And that was the start of the WVS Trolley Service into the Workhouses—the mentally disabled wings included. This simple idea alleviated the dire lives of countless poverty-stricken and disadvantaged folk.

I really admire my grandmother's spirit of regarding all people as equal. Even those our society has long sought to discard. A humble magnet on her fridge spoke of her life's ethic, a bible verse of just two words: “Be kind.”  

 

 

Have you witnessed a random display of kindness lately? Do you feel inspired by other people’s acts of charity? Know people who are givers rather than takers? Have you got a ‘Shine a Light’ story? Please share.

 

‘A man is only truly ethical when he obeys the compulsion to help all life he is able to assist. And shrinks from injuring anything that lives.’ ~ Albert Schweitzer

 

Talk to you later,

Yvette K. Carol

 

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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond – Available Now!

Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:52 AM PST

Just in time for IWSG post week and Christmas - The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond is available for downloading. Thanks to everyone who contributed – it is packed with information! Please help us spread the word about this awesome book.