365 Days of Hope

We’re rolling out a fun new campaign! One that we didn’t list in the May blog post, but hey, sometimes ideas just pop up out of nowhere. So here we go.

We’re gathering 365 ideas of “things” – anything, really – that we can take photos with in our Hope shirts. It can be anything from a cup of coffee to a sunset to the Eiffel Tower or even an activity (that won’t get us arrested/fired). Hey, you might even get us to see or try something new! So far, we’ve been given suggestions such as:

  • A rainbow
  • A wild animal in the wild (where we can do so safely!)
  • The beach
  • A music festival
  • A brewery
  • A famous art sculpture
  • An alpaca
  • Riding a bike

As you can see, your suggestions can be as specific or as general as you’d like. We might need to be creative at times, but we’re going to try to post one each day (some of which may have to be “later grams”, since we can’t really determine when we might see things like a rainbow or a wild animal in the wild). You are allowed to give us a specific place, but if you are not the proprietor of said place, we just need to ask their permission to tag them and prove it’s there. If we are not allowed to, we may need to generalize the suggestion (i.e. to “a coffee shop” or “a brewery”). If you are the proprietor, by all means, thank you for letting us take a photo there!

So please, fire away! There’s no bad suggestion, assuming it’s not illegal, immoral, or might injure us.  We’d love to experience new things and have new adventures along the way, so have at it! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

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Why Do You Spread Hope?

Starting this Sunday (March 26th), we’ll be running a one-week Instagram challenge. Each day, we’ll be asking people to share why (and how!) they spread hope, using the hashtag #whyispreadhope. It can be a picture of your efforts, with those that you’re spreading hope to, or simply a selfie explaining with a caption saying what you do and why. It can be a hand written signs or arts and crafts are fine. Heck, it can just be you wearing purple, the color of the Spread Hope Project, with a caption as simple as “I spread hope because hope matters.”  However you want to share your reason, share it. Of course, we’ll be sharing our “why” each day.

Why are we hosting this challenge? It’s simple really. The more people that share their story, the more people we reach. They reach their friends, their friends reach their friends, and the spread of hope continues on. We know it takes courage to put yourself and your stories out there like this, and we want to show people that it’s OK to share. You don’t have to be an expert or a professional or a writer or even a casual blogger. You just have to snap a pic and say “here’s why I do this”.

Everyone deserves to feel like they matter. They deserve to feel like someone wanted to reach them, and that they have the ability to help someone else, even if it’s simply by posting a photo and a hashtag.

We can’t wait to see what you have to share! See you on the Instagram side!

 

Why I Spread Hope

We Have a Blog!

Welcome! It’s been an exciting month for the Spread Hope Project. First off, if you’re reading this, the website is live, so that’s big news. We’re also now on Instagram, where you can see all of the neighborhoods, towns, cities, and sites we’re visiting to Spread Hope, the people we’ve met along the way, and all the fun projects we’re working on in between. While we don’t have a twitter account just yet, you can follow the hashtag #SpreadHopeProject, as well as our founder, Maya Northen.

In addition to our website and social media, we’ve begun the process of designing customized Hope shirts and merchandise, which will be available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to mental health, suicide prevention, and chronic illness nonprofits. We’ll be posting some photos of samples soon, and of course are always open to special requests .

And that’s where you come in!  Our mission is to Spread Hope, plain and simple. That means reaching out to and interacting with as many people as possible. We want to know where you think we should head next.  Maybe that’s your town or city. Maybe that’s a place nearby where you live or work or travel. Maybe it’s your school or university. Or maybe you just want to join in the spreading of hope and think your town or school or local business would be the perfect place to do so. Whatever it is, we want to know. So reach out by email or Instagram, or tweet at #SpreadHopeProject. We can’t wait to hear from you!