Introduction: Good morning and welcome to our Friday edition of “The Helpers”. After all my complaining last week about having nobody to ‘highlight’ in my spotlight section, DoReMI advised me she had a helper for me. Not only did she have a helper, she did this absolutely awesome diary that I am so excited to share with all of you today.
Helper Spotlight:
His name is Jermaine. He was a freshman in high school when my daughter was a senior. My daughter has no recollection of how they became friends; her best guess is that he was a Young ‘Un of one of her Young ‘Uns — a grandYoung ‘Un so to say. Her class made an unofficial, but very intentional, effort to mentor, support, befriend underclassmen [the Young ‘Uns] both for the sake of retention, and because they knew firsthand how daunting it could be to start at a school where nobody knew your name. I can’t say for sure if I’ve ever had a face-to-face introduction to Jermaine. It seems likely I did, but it’s just as likely that it happened when I was being introduced to a dozen or more students at one time.
As with so many of my daughter’s high school friends, she’s given me periodic updates, but it wasn’t until I found out from her that he does commission artwork, particularly superhero renditions, that he fully came onto my radar. My daughter had been searching for the perfect gift for her bridesmaids, so I suggested she ask Jermaine if he could do pieces of her bridesmaids as superheroes. He could, and he did. (On the left; I normally wouldn’t consider outing my daughter on social media, but her superhero mask maintains her secret identity quite effectively.)
At my daughter’s urging, I started following Jermaine on Twitter, because, “He is doing amazing things.” Like this:
With this as its purpose:
ABOUT HERO NATION
Hero Nation-Ypsilanti is a free, family-friendly comic convention that celebrates superheroes and diversity, with the mission that everyone has a hero inside of themselves that deserves to be celebrated. Our goal is to amplify the voices of marginalized and underrepresented people—including people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and women—through empowering and inclusive experiences with programming, workshops, tournaments, events, and more.
And the unasked for, but highly-deserved accolade: Ypsilanti man earns Arts Alliance's leadership award for community work.
But it wasn’t until this that I realized just how completely Jermaine had earned a Helper Spotlight:
Within six HOURS, the goal was met and surpassed. (The additional funds raised will provide much-needed funding for Hero Nation ‘18.)
And yes, this matters:
When there’s a vision, and a community to support it, great things can happen. It’s a good reminder for all of us.
Conclusion: I’m sure you can appreciate the dilemma that I was faced with. An outstanding diary that highlighted an incredible helper just drops into my lap. What should I do? What would you do? I think I made the right decision. Thank you, DoReMI for providing this edition of the Breath of Fresh Air series.
Strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others.