Call for Submissions Launched

Today, I believe that I successfully launched the call for submissions.  This week I spoke with the following persons:

Ruth Ann Gallagher at Scott Community College who recommended that I speak with Jim Schneider at the Career Assistance Center in downtown Davenport.  She had mentioned the project to him and he sounded enthusiastic. So, today I stopped in and left flyers and submission forms as well as a copy of the intro/presentation and my card (Jim wasn’t in).

Jane Hoffman, the interim executive director of the John Lewis Community Services met with me briefly this afternoon and also seemed very warm and enthusiastic about the project.  We discussed the theory that many creative people suffer from both financial difficulties and often had problems with addictive behaviors as a result of their sensitivity.

After speaking with Julie last week at the Humility of Mary Housing, I made a conscious decision to make the magazine open to submissions from ages 14 and up.  She had asked about children and although that sounds like a great idea, it was not my original vision.  Also, with children, one would need to include nearly all submissions and I believe that would make this issue entirely too unwieldy.  Perhaps this would be a good plan for a future project.  But including ages 14 and up will allow John Lewis’ homeless youth to participate and I think that teenagers especially will be encouraged to strive for more if they gain some recognition for their talents.

I stopped today also at the John Lewis Men’s Shelter and passed out flyers.  One elderly black gentleman was sitting in the common area and asked about the project.  He told me that he does drawings and I gave him a submission form.  It felt good to encourage him to participate.  There is a kind of glowing feeling emanating from my solar plexus and navel chakras after this contact.

I revisited the Davenport Public Library and left them copies of the corrected flyers and submission forms.

Finally, I stopped at Friendly House and they allowed me to post one flyer on the bulletin board in the back hallway.  Not as friendly as I had hoped, but the real business will be at the shelters of John Lewis and Humility of Mary and their enthusiasm and support more than makes up for any dearth of same at a minor location.