Whitney and I sure met a lot of motivated athletes last weekend at the Summer Military Sport Camp, and as is so often the case when it comes to volunteering, we got far more out of it than we put in. Out of respect for privacy, I won’t be sharing any specifics here about the […]

The orientation packet they sent out for the Summer Military Sport Camp I’m volunteering at includes a primer on disability etiquette. Among other things, the two-page document suggests that if the situation is appropriate, we should “strike up a conversation and include the person in whatever is going on, just as you would do for […]

My job at Easter Seals Headquarters just started a program called Outside In that gives employees up to one week of on-the-clock (paid!) time to volunteer for another non-profit organization. The idea is to learn what’s going on “outside” of Easter Seals and bring ideas from the experience back “in.” One of my co-workers used […]

I spent the past four days at a summer Jazz Camp here in Chicago. That was not a typo. I was at Jazz Camp. This is the fourth year that the Jazz Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble combined to present the camp for adults, but it’s the first year […]

Cherie Colyer (author of teen novel Embrace) regularly interviews fellow children’s book authors on her blog. This week she interviewed…me! Cherie asked a lot of good questions, and I especially appreciated having the opportunity to answer one about who my hero is: My mother is my hero. I am the youngest of seven, my father […]