Like Chicken Little, since the late-80s I’ve been running around telling people, “The sky is falling.” When I saw “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006, it was a profound visualization of that very thing. Watching polar bears drown, I felt powerless. The problem was so big. What could one little chicken do? It was overwhelming.
I hate feeling powerless. It pisses me off. If we’re going to solve these huge global problems, we need to feel empowered, inspired and energized. That’s how Sweet co-founder Jen Rainin and I struck upon the idea for Sweet. We asked ourselves: How can we make solving these problems fun? How can we get more people involved? Voila! Let’s travel the world and do simple community service projects where we can see a difference in a few hours.
In November 2009, we did that on our Sweet Caribbean Cruise. The feeling was phenomenal (see for yourself). Our voluntourista army replanted wetlands destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Hugo, refurbished a city park and installed a recycling program, pulled hundreds of bags of trash off beaches in Mexico, donated over 1,000 children’s books and a copier to a school in Belize, painted classrooms and dedicated a children’s library, donated computers to a children’s e-learning center in Honduras and brightened a dismal children’s hospital ward by painting vibrant cartoon characters on the walls in Belize. We did that with 300 people who gave 4 or 5 hours each. Along the way, we connected with the community in an amazing way. We learned about them. They learned about us. We opened a dialogue about lesbians and gays in places where we’re essentially invisible. We also connected with each other.
Our voluntouristas came home from our cruise motivated to continue spreading that goodwill. Denise Johnson from Chicago started the Roatan Computer Project and collected enough money to send seven more computers to Roatan’s E-Learning Centers. A teacher in Florida collected more school supplies to send to our school in Belize City. Two more Sweeties opted to do a book drive for the children of Belize rather than a gift exchange at their holiday party. And on and on. The Sweet Ripples from our first cruise continue to spread.
Newton’s first law says that an object in motion will stay in motion (well, it says something more complicated — F=Ma — but that’s the gist of it). That’s the formula for Live Sweet (fun = mission x action). Our mission is to get more people in motion and create a ripple effect of positive action all over the world. Think of it as lesbians (and our pals) giving the world a giant hug.
The Live Sweet Voluntour 2010 aims to start as many ripples in as many cities in the United States as we can reach this year. That means, I’m traveling to different cities to lead community service projects, gather Sweeties for fun and fundraising fitness events and host parties to celebrate our lives. We’re also spreading lesbian visibility in the United States, where it seems like every day people are voting on whether we deserve equal rights. The more we connect with people in our own backyard, the less likely they will be to vote against us.
No matter who you are, how much you make or where you live, we each only get 24 hours (1,440 minutes / 86,400 seconds) in each day. Your time is precious. Your attention priceless. Together, your time and attention can make a huge difference in the world. We’ve created a new site at Live-Sweet.com for our tour. Check the upcoming events calendar for Live Sweet Voluntour stops near you. Currently, I’m heading to Orlando, Florida (April 16-18), New York City and New Jersey (April 23-25) and Denver (April 30-May 2). Want Sweet to come to your city? Suggest a project!
Let’s change the world with our love, laughter and unbridled glee.
Hug the world,
Tags: Live Sweet Voluntour 2010, Shannon Wentworth, Sweet Somethings, voluntourism
02/25/10
6:33 am
do you have any more info on the Denver Sweet voluntour?
Thanks