I Wonder if Portia Knits?

That was one of the very random thoughts that occurred to me when I was walking across campus this morning. Lots of celebrities, both past and present, like to click their needles–just check out these blog posts from Eclecticiti and Cheaty Monkey to see the who’s who of the knit and purl world. Anyway, I found myself wondering whether or not the lovely Portia de Rossi knits–and if not, she should do,but then, that’s my advice for everyone that doesn’t knit. From curiously pondering what Portia does in her free time, it was natural that I’d then wonder about Ellen and hot on the heels of that came the surprising thought that maybe I should email Ellen about the Project. So I did.

I spent most of the day talking myself out of it, then back into it, then back out of it again. I’m sure that she gets thousands of emails every day all from people who are doing incredible things in the world, and as much as I have complete belief in this Project and the people contributing to it, I just wasn’t sure whether that would translate to anyone else–silly really when I remember just how many people across America have already thrown themselves into the Project. I must have visited her website a dozen times today, clicked on the link to email the show, and then closed the window in terror. I can’t quite say what made me shy away from sending an email, other than perhaps an irrational fear that there’s a slim chance that she might just get to hear about the Project and like it, and what then?

Earlier this evening, though, I finally managed to put those fears behind me. I wrote a very brief email (actually, the submission form only allows 1500 characters so I had to be brief) outlining the Project and its aims. I’m not sure I was entirely coherent–my email was the written equivalent of an over-excited 5 year old meeting Father Christmas–but I think I got the main thoughts down. I did remember to send a link to this website and to the podcast I did for WUKY yesterday, if nothing else, maybe she’ll like my English accent. But the email is sent now, and all I can do is wait, and hope.

If, though, anyone else feels like petitioning Ellen on the Project’s behalf, here’s a link to her “contact page”–I’d be thrilled if you told her about the Project from your perspective.

 

Tune In!

This week has been hugely exciting for me–the Diversity Project is attracting some local media attention!

Yesterday, I did podcast interview for our local NPR station, WUKY. My interviewer, Josh James, was lovely, and I also got to meet the Programming Manager, Stacy Yelton, who I now realize has been following the Project’s progress almost since the beginning. Not only is the podcast already live on their website but they’re also going to edit it down to shorter chunks and air it during Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Very exciting!

Click here to listen to the WUKY podcast.

Today at 3pm, I’m also going to be on WRFL 88.1 Radio Free Lexington. I’ll be on the Out Loud show with Allie Huddleston. Those of you in Lexington, please tune in and let me know what you think. For those a little further afield, I’m pretty sure that you can listen in via the website so if you have chance, please do so.

Next week I’ll be recording another podcast for the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, which will be available on their website. One of the members of my Jury Panel, KJ Rawson, has very kindly agreed to participate with me. I’ll post more about that when we’ve recorded the podcast.

Thanks to the lovely people at WUKY and WRLF for the wonderful publicity–I’ve enjoyed speaking publicly about the Project far more than I ever anticipated I would. Now, does anyone know how to get in touch with Ellen…?

 

 

It’s The Little Things…

I was inordinately pleased tonight, when logging in to the site statistics, to discover that someone had arrived at the website by googling “the diversity project knitting”. In hindsight, I realize that they probably already knew about the project and just needed to get hold of a link, but nonetheless it made me smile.

There have been plenty of big things happening today too, as alluded to in last night’s rather late (and rushed) post. I met Sandy for coffee this morning–we’ve facebook “known” each other for a while now so it was great to finally put a real face to the name. Sandy is wonderful. We spent ages chatting about the project and she’s given me some fabulous pointers about raising awareness and potentially raising funds.As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’m aiming to raise money to provide a one-off scholarship for an LGBT student here in Lexington. When I first thought of the project last week (was it really only just over a week ago?) I had the rather lofty ambition to raise $1,000, primarily from the auction of the finished blanket. Sandy thinks I’m being conservative, as do several other people that I’ve spoken to. I’m astonished. Raising $1,000 would be incredible but raising more than that would really blow my mind. I need to really believe that together–because this won’t happen without lots of help–we can make it happen.

Amongst other things, Sandy gave me some great tips for news releases and getting in touch with local television stations (I’m not sure I’m ready to be seen on television…) but we also talked about the possibility of raising funds for the project prior to the blanket being auctioned. I’ve already realized that I’ll need some sponsorship from local businesses to cover the immediate overheads of the project–buying yarn and needles for community knit events and possibly printing flyers and business cards but I hadn’t considered the possibility of raising funds for the scholarship by other means than the auction. It sounds like a great idea, but I need to check with the Gaines Center that it’s something I’m allowed to do. That will have to go on my to-do list for next week. After meeting with Sandy, I flew down the road to meet with Tiffany, the new director of UK’s OUTsource center. She’s really enthusiastic about OUTsource supporting the project in a variety of ways, I think it has the potential to be a mutually beneficial collaboration.

And then, two more lovely things happened. Just before the summer break I made a new English friend, Alison. She’s been here in Lexington for a couple of years now and as it turns out she’s from pretty much the same part of England as me, we’re both northern lasses. I’d promised Alison I’d make a gluten free bacon, lettuce, and tomato salad for an event she was involved in planning–when I popped by to drop it off (with no small amount of regret, I might add–it’s an incredibly yummy salad) she handed me an envelope with $30 inside and instructions to buy some special yarn for the project. We’re going to meet “fer a brew” next week so if I haven’t managed to buy some yarn with her donation by then, I’ll rope her in to choose it with me. And her donation makes me all the more aware that I need to start keeping very careful records of contributions, especially if there’s money involved. I need to hop in to the Credit Union on campus tomorrow and have a chat with them about opening an account for the project so that I can keep things well organized. And a record-keeping book wouldn’t go amiss either.

The second lovely thing happened when I got home. MB, my community juror, mentioned last week that she thought her mother-in-law (who very sadly passed away not too long ago) had a huge stash of quilting fabrics. MB very kindly offered to pass the fabrics on to me so that they could be used to back the finished blanket–not only will this look pretty but it will also help prevent the squares stretching when it’s displayed. Well, it also seems that her lovely mother-in-law also had quite a stash of yarn that MB would like to donate to the project–and according to her post on the facebook page’s wall, there’s a lot of yarn too! I can’t wait to start getting it knitted up into squares!

I’ve tentatively spoken to one of the girls that works at Coffee Times about hosting some community knit events there. She was very positive about it but I really need to call and talk to the owner very soon. All the donated yarn is definitely going to come in very handy for that. Did I mention yesterday, by the way, that Nadean on Ravelry has already donated 4 skeins (about 800 yards) of a rainbow-coloured yarn? Things are taking shape.

I’m noticing that I’m saying “very soon” in almost all my posts–right now I’m really starting to feel that I’m doing a lot of talking and not much action, which is a bit concerning. Certainly, things are happening in that the word is getting out and people are starting to contribute, but I need to start organizing concrete things–setting dates for knit-events, organizing news releases, sending out emails, I need to make real, tangible progress and I don’t feel that’s happening yet. Maybe I’m being impatient. It might help if I plan a schedule rather than just keeping things in the back of my mind–there will come a point (if I’ve not reached it already) when my mind will refuse to cooperate and I’ll forget everything I want to do. Time for me to get a notebook and start making lists, I think. Soon.

Crazy Day Ahead!

There’s been LOTS happening behind the scenes today which should start to pave the way for more publicity and more collaboration. Tomorrow, my one day a week (almost) free from classes, will be spent juggling the class work that I’ve got to get finished alongside meeting a couple of people who could be extremely influential in making or breaking this project.

At 10am I’m meeting with the PR specialist I mentioned last week. She was involved with an organization very close to mine and Susan’s hearts, so it will be a delight to finally meet her (we’ve corresponded before but haven’t actually met) and I’m very much looking forward to hearing her suggestions for moving the project forwards. Plus: we’re meeting in a coffee shop I haven’t visited before which is always fun. I know, I’m easily pleased in that regard.

Sometime after that, but before lunch, I’ll be getting together with the director of UK’s OUTsource organizations, Tiffany. I’ve had a couple of classes with Tiffany over the last two semesters and she’s really dedicated to LGBT issues. It will be fabulous to have the backing of OUTsource and could really raise the profile of the project on campus. Plus” more coffee. Yes, I’ll be highly caffeinated before the afternoon is out.

Today, one of my classmates, Eric, who is in my current writing class sent me a wonderful email. Eric has very kindly passed on a list of useful LGBT contacts here in the community–it’s an astonishing list and I’m grateful to the work he put in just to put the list together. I’ll be starting to email people tomorrow and hopefully promote the project in places that campus promotion wouldn’t ordinarily reach.

Also on my list of tasks for tomorrow is to contact a local printing firm (or two) to enquire if they’d be prepared to donate some printing services for the project. Miss Ashley emailed me her flyers last night and they’re great. They will definitely have more impact if they’re in colour though, which means I’ll need to get a real printing firm involved. And as I now have two confirmed volunteers on board to put some flyers up (thanks, Tasha and Bea!) the sooner we get those flyers printed, the better. On that note, I’ll still need more volunteers for the campus area so if you can help with that, please get in touch.

Totally off-topic, but definitely worthy of sharing is the news that we are kitten-sitting the two sweetest kittens for our friends this weekend. Mandula and Mazsola are currently curled up sleeping whilst our three cats look bemused and just a little perturbed at our guests. I know, kittens have nothing to do with the project but they’re always worth talking about.

And as the kittens are sleeping, so it’s time for me to sign off and get ready for a crazy day tomorrow.