The Power of Story Summer Giving Campaign
A message from Tim’m West, WordPlay Board Chair about The Power of Story
Every story has value. When we share our stories, we have the power to transform our lives, our communities, and generations to come.
Whether I was 6, or 16, writing about teapots or rhymes in textbooks, the stories I created were an extension of next breaths. These stories, unfinished as they were at times, beckoned completion, deserved an edit, were almost always needy. When I gained the confidence to publish, after reading and learning, giving up and starting over, I understood that writing and storytelling is parallel to the life journey. Some of us breathe, therefore we write. And so many like me, unsure that we had anything worth hearing, have found community, friendship, family, purpose.
As Board Chair of WordPlay Cincy, I get to play a role in enabling lives like my own. Kids who need to write to imagine freedom and joy, in order to make it so.
WordPlay was founded to spark storytelling through writing, performing, and visual arts in collaboration with Cincinnati’s young people by celebrating their strengths, cultivating belonging, and fueling social impact.
As I write this, nearly one decade after we first opened our doors, our community of young creatives is facing a very different reality than in September of 2012. They are seeking opportunities to come together to process, heal and move forward. Our newly renovated headquarters at 1556 Chase Ave. in Northside represents our commitment to creating that safe, inclusive, accessible place for gathering and finding meaning in our collective stories.
Will you join us as we step into our next decade and make a gift to WordPlay Cincy’s Power of Story summer giving campaign?
Gifts to this campaign will help us secure the resources essential for our summer and fall 2022 programs, powering our lineup of camps, workshops, city-wide collaborations and exciting new offerings such as the Cincinnati Youth Poet Laureate program and the launch of our Youth Arts in Action program, a year-long experience for teens to work with creative mentors to hone their writing and art for social impact
These programs are a safe haven of inclusion, connection, and validation for children and teens for whom writing and creative expression are an extension of next breaths.
Please fill out the enclosed remittance envelope and send it in today. All amounts are deeply appreciated. Or, if you want to make your tax-deductible gift online, visit www.wordplaycincy.org/donate. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it will be transformational for the countless individuals to walk through the doors of 1556 Chase Ave. in Northside.
Wishing you and yours all the best.
In gratitude,
Tim’m West
WordPlay Cincy Board Chair
