I’ve always believed that art inspires art, and here’s a beautiful example of that. These two photos, the latest entries for my By Leaps and Bounds Photo Contest, were taken by artist Tracey Riddell-Ireland at Bennett Lake, Ontario. “I once said that I found your work to be inspirational,” she writes. “These two photos represent that inner inspiration. Drawing is something that I always loved to do, and your poems have inspired me to create something that I didn’t know I could create until it was finished.”
Tracey, you inspire ME. Thank you so much for the beautiful drawing and your two entries. I’m so touched. I’m loving every minute of this contest. It has taken me and all of you on paths I never imagined!
Rules for the contest are posted here. Please don’t forget to vote for your favorite photos on my Facebook Author page!
'Inspired' by Tracey Riddell-Ireland'Leaping by the Lake' by Tracey Riddell-Ireland
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This is about the only time I’d ever say that–as the author of a book titled, ‘Leap,’ I’d say I’m a pretty big fan of jumping in and going for it. But “Don’t Leap!” is definitely the appropriate title for the latest entry in my “By Leaps and Bounds” Photo Contest. This photo was taken by Tony Jurado on May 6, 2010, from the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City, NY, USA. You can vote for this and other photos in the contest on my Facebook Author Page, and enter your own photo by following the rules in my previous blog post “By Leaps and Bounds Photo Contest”. Keep on leaping, everyone–I can’t wait to see what else you come up with for this contest!
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I’d love to know more about my readers –where you live, where you’ve leapt, where you’ve leapt with ‘Leap’! Here’s hoping we all have
some fun with this three-month-long photo contest.
RULES, VOTING, RED WINE AND DARK CHOCOLATE
1) Take a photo of ‘Leap’ somewhere in your home, town, or city, or someplace special you’ve traveled to–it can be as close-up as against an old tree in your backyard, or as far-away as a wide-angle of Times Square, with ‘Leap’ somewhere on the sidewalk. We just need to be able to see the book ‘Leap,’ and you need to be creative. You don’t need to be in the photo, if you’re not comfortable with that, since all entries will be published here on my blog and on my Facebook Author Page too, however, you need to think outside the box with this. You need to Leap!
2) E-mail the photo to me at writer@hgrace.com, and include the place where it was taken and the photographer’s name, so I can give the photo a credit, and get the entrant’s name. If you don’t want to use your real name on the Net, give me a pseudonym to use as the credit, that’s fine. As long as I have your e-mail to contact you if you’re the winner, it’s great.
3) Visit here as often as you can to check out and discuss the competition! Then visit my Facebook Author Page to VOTE. Every thumbs-up on that Facebook Author Page is a vote. Every positive comment or a comment with simply the word ‘VOTE’ is another vote. You may vote on your own photo. You may comment on your own photo as many times as you want –however, your vote in the comments section only counts once. You can also convince all your friends and family to join my Author Page and vote on your photo, too. They can give it a thumbs up AND make a comment (or simply the word ‘VOTE’) and that counts as 2 votes. Everyone can vote on as many photos as they wish! I will not be allowed to vote on the photographs on Facebook but I might comment on some –any comments from me under the photos will not count as votes, however.
4) You may enter up to two photographs.
5) Contest begins Wednesday, April 28th and ends Sunday, August 1st at noon. The winner will be announced some time that week.
6) Should there be a tie in the peer-voting on Facebook, I have chosen three impartial judges who, together, will choose a winner.
7) The winner will receive a very fine bottle of red wine and boxes of dark chocolate, or, if they don’t drink wine, a cheesecake delivered to their door. (Yes, this can be done, some wonderful people have done it for me, and I’ll never forget it, and want to spread the joy!) Wine, chocolate, cake–these are the finer things in life, and I want to share them with my readers, as a way of thanking you for reading and sharing my poems.
The greatest lesson I learned this year was that I don’t need great power or money to make a difference in the world. I can use my talents to help others. I got a much greater reward than any award or sum of money simply by learning how children in the third world have benefited from the donations I’ve been able to offer Unicef and Grace Educational Trust School.
Thanks to your interest in my poetry collection, I’ve surpassed my goal of being able to give a child in the third world the Gift of Education for a year. In addition to that Gift, I recently donated money from the proceeds of my book sales to buy bed nets to help children avoid malaria, and just bought a child the Gift of Play. A lot of children have never seen art supplies or a jump rope. Shouldn’t every child in this world know what it is to create and to play?
Earlier this year, thanks to an interview I did with Neelima Pratap for one of my magazine articles, I discovered a wonderful school in Goa, India that is in its beginning stages and needs financial help so the children can have supplies, desks (they currently sit on the soil to study) and a larger room to serve as their classroom. After I donated to Unicef, I was able to donate proceeds from WTBG to Grace Educational Trust School to help them out a bit with the construction costs for the chairs and desks. I hope with Christmas sales and throughout 2009 I can continue to donate to both Unicef and Grace Educational Trust School.
I am still committed to donating half the proceeds from sales of Where the Butterflies Go to third world educational projects, even though I initially said I’d just try to fund one child’s education for a year. I didn’t want to stop at that once I realized how many lives could be touched with the small donation each book sale offers. I want to keep going, and I hope you’ll help me by buying the book for Christmas gifts this year; Mother’s Day gifts next year, or just for yourself. That’s all I want for Christmas!
People of all ages and backgrounds enjoy my poems – there really is something in this collection for everyone, so it makes a great gift for that person who seems to have everything. You can read the reviews here: Reviews of Heather’s poetry collection. This is also the spot where I’d prefer you buy the book, as Amazon takes a heftier royalty, leaving less for me to donate to Unicef. Just a request 🙂
Autographed copies are available by emailing me at writer@hgrace.com. I can ship the signed book to you once I receive payment via Paypal. Unsigned copies are easily bought via lulu.com as well as amazon sites internationally.
It’s been such a joy to receive notices from Grace School updating me on the school’s progress. Recently, the school’s small staff organized a Children’s Day at the school. The children had never seen party hats or favours before, and were so excited to receive the simplest things most of us take for granted, like pencils and erasers.
Pencils and erasers. I’ve learned through my involvement with Unicef and Grace Educational Trust School this year that the simplest, most seemingly insignificant gifts can give children in third world countries a sense of well-being, self-worth and pride. Those are the gifts I can’t wait to give this Christmas.
Children's Day at GET: Their faces say it all!
Order unsigned copies of my book here and receive them in time for Christmas: Where the Butterflies Go
Signedcopies ordered through me before Dec. 15 should also make it in time for the 25th!
Learn more about Grace Educational Trust School through a CBC special here Giving Hope).
Some of you may not know that half the proceeds from sales of Where the Butterflies Go are donated to educational projects in the third world. My collection was launched in February, and I was pleasantly surprised to reach my first goal by early March. My first donation was made at that time to Unicef’s Gift of Education Project. This donation paid for a full year of education for a child in need, including their tuition, books, supplies, and part of a teacher’s salary.
I didn’t want to stop there – it is incredibly rewarding to have my poems making a small difference in the world. So when I interviewed Neelima Pratap for a magazine article and learned about the small one- roomed school in Goa, India that she has co-founded with Francis Das, Grace Educational Trust school, I knew I’d found another worthy, wonderful project that could use my help.
These young children would never have had the opportunity to get even the most basic education -something I have often taken for granted – if it weren’t for the dedication and effort these incredible ladies have put forth.
The fact that the school’s name is my maiden name was purely coincidental…yet an interesting coincidence!
My small $100 donation will help them build desks and chairs for the children, but I am hoping that with continued sales of Where the Butterflies Go, I can donate more towards their goal of building a brand new school for the children. This is where you, dear readers, come in!
I hope that you’ll watch this wonderful clip from an interview with Neelima Pratap which aired on CBC’s The National in early July- I am sure it will move you, and will tell you more about where your dollars are going when you buy Where the Butterflies Go.
If you are interested in an autographed copy of my collection, please contact me at writer@hgrace.com or below, and I will arrange payment (I accept money orders but prefer Paypal) to sign and ship a copy to your home. Non-autographed copies are available from my publisher at Lulu.com
Neelima has also informed me that Grace Educational Trust school now has a website at GraceEducationalTrust.com, where you can read articles and updates about the school.
Thanks again to all my kind readers! Photo: Children at Grace Educational Trust. Photo courtesy Neelima Pratap.
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Heather Grace Stewart 