Letters and Cookies and Generosity (Oh, My!)

By Julie Polk
Girls Write Now Mentor

I hate asking for donations. It always feels like I’m imposing, and it’s easy to assume that people have other things to do with their time and/or money. (I’m sure this aversion comes in part from my ten years as actress, where the “cause” was usually “rent money,” and the potential “donors” were otherwise known as “my parents.”) Which is why I can admit, after the fact, that as I walked into the GWN letter-writing soiree on November 5th, I was planning on staying for a drink, chatting with a fellow mentor or two, knocking out a couple of letters max, and then sneaking away before anyone caught on to how lame I am at this sort of activity.

But here is the thing: once I sat down and read Tina Gao’s appeal letter and watched the video of her and Maya’s trip to the White House for the Coming Up Taller award, I was sold on GWN all over again. And I realized I had it wrong. The soiree was about asking others to be generous, sure, but it was also about we at GWN being generous as well, because generosity comes in all kinds of forms. Sometimes it’s about giving, but at least as often it’s about sharing things you love: a favorite book, a great band you’ve just discovered, a recipe you’ve made so many times you know it by heart. From the time I first learned about GWN I was a huge fan. I worked as hard on my mentor application as I did on my applications to writing school. (Erm… harder, probably, but don’t tell my grad school teachers that, all right? It’ll just be our little secret. Excellent.) Being a part of Girls Write Now is a pleasure I feel lucky to have, so how could I justify withholding the possibility of that pleasure from others just because I felt a little uncomfortable?

The answer, of course, is that I couldn’t. So I had my drink and my chats and more cookies than I’m willing to admit publicly, and then I sat down and knocked out a bunch more letters than the couple I had intended. I have no idea how many of the letters I sent yielded donations, but I know at least two of them did, because after donating they emailed me to thank me for letting them know about GWN. So be generous enough to share what you love with others. Who knows? They may love it as much as you do – but unless you tell them about it, they may never have the chance.