Today, there were seven of us at the Lansing Country Club. The distance from a country club to the little table in a kitchen where a family doesn’t have enough to feed everyone is about a million miles.

But here we were, being honored with the Food Bank Council of Michigan’s Beacon of Light Award for having done something in our area that made a difference in local homes where food insecurity is a daily struggle. 

We seven were selected as award winners from our particular region of Michigan by the local participants of the Food Bank Council of Michigan and the Michigan Harvest Gathering, created by Bill & Cynthia Schuette twenty nine years ago.

This award should be for the tireless workers at Greater Lansing Food Bank, who have, for the past 13 years, followed a guideline and re-created the Empty Plate Strolling Dinner and Auction each spring bringing to life what is now the largest fundraising event in the capitol region of Michigan. 700+ attendees donating more than $500,000 each year. And as the event moves into its 14th year it has collected more than $4.5 million dollars and counting.

So, how do you do this kind of thing in your own community? I’ll tell you. First, you have to run out of ideas on how to raise more funds for your non-profit. Second, you need to have a creative genius on your board who realizes you are going to need one crazy-good idea, and that creative genius needs to reach into their collective of other creative friends and see the best match for the task. Third, you need to have a board that is open to new ideas, no matter how far fetched they may sound. 

All those things happened fifteen years ago. The creative genius: Jim Wardlaw, formerly Chief of all things at Publicom and today, Executive Director at Buffalo Center for Cultural Innovation; still doing genius level creative things. When Jim called me and said “blah, blah, blah…crazy-good idea…event…fundraising…want to pitch us?”, I said, “Heck, yeah. I’m in.” 

Here is where an idea moved towards fruition. I did my homework, researching fundraising efforts in other states. What worked, what didn’t, what resonated with the community where we were, how we could use what was around us to make it unique, memorable and most of all, fun for the attendees. Free tip: Never leave out the fun element when you are creating a fundraising event. Your donors and participants get hit up to give or purchase tickets to dozens of events each year; rubber chicken…speeches…yawn. 

When I gathered my findings and laid out my plan to the Board at GLFB, what they didn’t say was, “Uhh… that’s never gonna work.” 

What they DID say was, “How can we help?”  There it is. The difference between success and failure. The magic words. How can we help? Imagine if everyone, everywhere approached everything they do with that thought in their mind. How can I help? You know what would happen? Everything would get done. Everything. 

The amazing people at GLFB, with Sarah Jaworski leading the way, have grown this little event to the EVENT that it is today. They’ve made changes where they were needed and have evolved the details; adapted to current needs and now the Empty Plate has a life of its own. 

12,000,000 meals. That’s what’s been provided in the Greater Lansing area in these years since the first time the doors opened at Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center for the 1st Empty Plate event.

12,000,000 meals. (So glad I didn’t have to do the dishes.)

MSU and Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center continue to host Empty Plate and with Joel Heberlein’s wide connections in the world of food, wine and hotels, he’s managed to (gently) twist the arms of his buddies and gather an astonishing offering of donated items for the live and silent auction. Local restaurants and vintners line up each year for a chance to set up a space in the Big Ten Room and offer the best of their food and drink; all donated. 

It’s a wonder to behold; community working together to help other circles of our community who may never get to sit at a table in the Lansing Country Club for a banquet. 

I am very proud to be the momma of The Empty Plate and I am grateful for the nod today. I am even more grateful for the dozens of people that keep this alive and growing and for the new GLFB Board members and directors. I am grateful that they will never have to sit in a meeting feeling a little hopeless at the lack of donations when their goal is to help more people. They are now fueled with the inertia that comes from a really, truly, crazy-good idea that works. 

Thanks Jim, for hearing “crazy-good idea” and thinking of me. Wanna plan something bigger? Let’s talk.

To close, here’s my advice to anyone that wants to make a difference in the world. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. And don’t forget the magic words; How can I help? 

With much love,

Thanks Everybody. 

It is not when your heart is full
that you feel the weight of all that you have
It’s when you pull away
Driving out under cover of darkness
Leaning south
down the water road
Strings begin to pull
Leading from my heart to theirs
Stretched taut over the miles-
Water color sky
Bruised by morning-
A magic word not yet imagined
For the steel blue water
Interrupted by black boats across the bay
in this spare morning light
Away, away again
To somewhere else
Where it’s too noisy to hear my heart
Or to notice that spider thin thread
I left behind on the road
that leads me back to home.

So, I’m a writer. Which means I have a “real job” and I write when I can. Which, for me, is when it’s not peak wedding season.

I have a venue in Northern Michigan. It’s a really great little venue that’s in high demand for couples looking for a fairytale wedding. So, from May until late fall, I am up to my ears in timelines, floor plans, flowers and cake…on the dance floor…in the carpet…in my hair. Don’t ask.

This season, we started adding other events to the calendar during the weekdays; weddings on the weekends. Except recently, when I had to flip the building from a wedding to a chef dinner to a wedding to a private party to a catering job outside the venue and then a wedding again. I should just change my name to Allied Van Lines given the furniture moved around in here. But I am not complaining. I love what I do. And I especially love bringing people together to celebrate whatever they are moved to celebrate.

I’ve always been that person. You know, the one that everybody called to say, “What’s happening this weekend?” And if nothing was happening I would make something happen. Now I get paid to do that.

Love it. Just can’t do any writing while I’m freaking out at midnight wondering if the linen order was right or if it’s going to rain forcing the couple’s ceremony out of the marina park and into the venue two hours earlier.

Weddings are great places to people watch. It’s a smorgasbord of every group and family dynamic you can imagine and a few you really don’t want to imagine. Great hunting grounds for character building for stories.

In October, the 13th to be exact, I have five female authors converging on the venue for Books, Babes & Booze- a cocktail reception/book signing/panel discussion. Can’t wait!

So that’s where the hell I’ve been since May. I’ll be back writing soon. OK. Soonish.

In the meantime, you can follow my flower trail at www.willowbrookmill.com

Poem #29 of 30

That’s Ever Been

When he says
My God, you’re beautiful
Believe it
Believe it
Believe it
Like a radio wave
Continuing out into the universe forever-
So are the moments when
You come to know yourself
Through someone else’s eyes

Believe it
Even when you cannot reconcile
That love flushed observation
With your image in a mirror
Remember that it happened

There is no never in the universe-
Only everything that’s ever been

Poem #28 a Haiku

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shatter

We all have a story
That we will never share out loud
Or our hearts will shatter

a Ten Word Poem. #27 of 30

War Hammer

Voice
of the people
gathering here.
New weapon forged-
Numbers

Poem #26 of 30

Hop Dream

Soil readied
precious petals planted
Weeks
Before the sun
hugs the ellipse
Up the wire lines
They run
Building verdant necklaces
as they go
Each gem
a magic part
Of drinks for gods
and queens

#25 of 30

Cocoon

Time presses

into itself

until six months is

just a day

Every time I get it right
I have to leave again

Gone-
To that other home where
Parts of me live out

Those same parts that cocoon
over winter

Dream of color and sound

Hidden beneath a cold,

white blanket

And in the moment

of making the most of a home

and its quiet refuge-

it’s time to emerge

and soar

again

somewhere else

How I love the warm nest

I have made

But how I also love the flying