The Hope project

with Susan from the WRC

Some of the donated items

Four months ago, I was asked to help out with a local project benefiting a center I care about deeply- the Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley. This project, organized by the Blacksburg Newcomers Club, involves collecting items that mean "hope" to women in the community. These items are being put into a big sculpture by a local artist, Beverly. When the sculpture is finished in the fall, it will travel the New River Valley sharing stories and collecting donations for the WRC. I helped contribute to the project and helped out in downtown Blacksburg yesterday while we promoted the project and took additional submissions.

The stories behind some of these items are incredibly moving. Each item was photographed in the woman's hands and a scrapbook with these photos and short write ups will travel with the sculpture. This is a wonderful community initiative and thanks so much to my friend Erin for helping me be a part of it!