Strength and beauty are virtues of the vulnerable.
– Katherine Ramdeen, If I Could Tell You Supernatural Calendar, 2018
Katherine Ramdeen as photographed by Illya Swan. Their copyright. (c)2018
[No copyright infringement intended and no money made.]
Credit to Stands. (c)2018
Shoshannah Stern is an actress, in theatre, television, and film. She played hunter, Eileen Leahy on the hit show on The CW, Supernatural. The Supernatural cast and fans are known for their various charities, especially for actor/activist, Misha Collins’ Random Acts.
The All You Need is Love campaign will run for the next seven days. Items will begin shipping the third week in May. Proceeds from this campaign will go to Off The Grid, a non-profit that provides access to survival tools in high risk and remote areas all across the world. One of those survival tools is for the deaf and hard of hearing who are often forgotten about during emergency communications.
Shoshannah herself is deaf; her first language is American Sign Language. She is currently co-starring (and co-writing as well as having created) This Close, a series currently appearing on the Sundance Now streaming service. This Close is a modern day drama showing the universal story of friendship, love, and life where the two main characters (and others) just happen to be deaf.
New York Times article on This Close
Here’s their official trailer:
I’ve had a page this last year of where I send my support. I reached out to some friends for their most important charities, and wanted to share them here with you.
If you have spare money throughout the year or time for some of the local volunteer organizations, please use it to do good.
I have listed them alphabetically, and the religious organizations included have as their primary focus helping others. Check their status here.
ACLU*
Committee to Protect Journalists*
Heifer International
The Hispanic Federation*
National Domestic Violence Hotline
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation*
Save a Warrior (SAW)
St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital*
Inclusion is not endorsement. However, the ones with an asterisk are where I have personally contributed over the years.
In my reflection of November on Thursday, I talked a bit about gratitude. Today, while many are going to enjoy fall activities of seeing families, playing or watching football, catching up on reading, applepicking, and other fall favorites, and getting ready for Thanksgiving, I will be at my church, and have been since about seven-thirty in the morning for our second annual morning of service.
At last count, we have over three hundred volunteers who will be helping out at nursing homes, Habitat for Humanity, the local city mission, day cares, and creating projects at the church to be given out to a variety of places like Ronald McDonald House, Operation Christmas Child, and other local charities.
There are many ways that we all give back for what we are lucky enough to have. We donate clothes, food, money, and time in all kinds of ways.
One organization that has helped my family and many, many others is the St. Vincent de Paul Society with the Catholic Church. If you want to donate money, time, or items, contact your local Catholic Church, and ask them how.
A second organization that comes highly recommended to me is Catholic Charities.
In many cases, you do not have to be Catholic to utilize their services, and you most definitely do not need to be Catholic to donate to them.
My favorite group to help and support is Random Acts. They are the epitome of teaching that each of us can do a little, and it all adds up. Small gestures mean big things to many.
This year, in particular, I would recommend Hispanic Federation. They take care of all kinds of needs, but especially this year, they are doing important work for Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Help them if you can.
And if you can’t help these groups directly, please share their names and contact information on your social media accounts so that others may help if they are able.
Thank you for all that you do.
I have talked, here and other places, about my perceptions of the differences of being a fan and being in a fandom. Those of us in fandoms take things just one step, maybe ten steps further, and for each us it happens in varying degrees and with a variety of participation.
Of all the fandoms that I’ve participated in, I would say that the biggest part of my fannish heart belongs to the Supernatural family, or #spnfamily or abbreviated further as #spnfam.
They are the kindest, most compassionate people who volunteer their time and donate their money to just causes and people in need with their only reward the thankfulness for letting them be a part of it.
From Misha Collins’ Random Acts charity to Jared Padalecki’s Always Keep Fighting campaigns to Jensen Ackles’ raising money and awareness for Down’s Syndrome, and he and his wife (along with the Padaleckis and Collins’ and the rest of the Supernatural and CW folks) raising an incredible $400,000+ for hurricane relief – Stronger than Storms.
They’re supportive.
They’re encouraging.
They’re inspirational.
In addition to the charitable works, Misha’s Scavenger Hunt, Gishwhes, which just finished its final year, the depression awareness, self-harm help, and suicide prevention Always Keep Fighting campaign, a small group of vocal women created a group based on the women we admired of Supernatural.
I say “we” but I was not part of the initial germ of an idea; I joined with other fans in supporting the concept of Wayward Daughters, which became Wayward Daughters Academy. The use of the word “wayward” is a nod to Kansas’ song, Carry On Wayward Son, the unofficial theme of Supernatural. The concept was the the wayward orphan girls on the show would live with Sheriff Jody Mills, and hunt monsters. It’s a nice idea, and the fans loved it. And Kim Rhodes loved it. As well as Brianna Buckmaster, who plays Sheriff Donna Hanscom, and as more orphans arrived on the show, and more kick it in the ass female characters arrived, it grew.
And it grew.
It became a hashtag. #waywardaf
It became a charitable campaign through Creation Stands, now known as Stands.
It morphed into sisters instead of daughters; not biological sisters, but a family of choice.
And now, we fans have realized a wonderful dream: a possible spin-off show starring Kim and Brianna as well as Kathryn Newton (Claire Novak) and Katherine Ramdeen (Alex) and a few other young women.
Their pilot is called a back door pilot. They will have an episode in Sueprnatural’s Season 13 giving us a glimpse of what a Wayward Sisters show would be like, and if it gets enough viewers and potential fans, it’s a go.
I am so excited!
Girl Power!
The future is female!
This is the perfect year for this opportunity.
In addition to a sidebar in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, the Ladies of Supernatural have produced a calendar, sold through Stands for charity. All proceeds will be going to the Jacmel Children’s Center in Haiti.
It’s more than twelve months of pretty pictures; it is also life advice from an amazing grup of independent, empowering, bad ass, wayward af women!
Click picture to buy calendar. (c)Stands, 2017. Pin above used from Kim Rhodes Twitter. (c)KimRhodes, 2017
Each month I have tried to use one of my new 52 weeks to talk about a person or personality who has been an influence on my life. In past weeks, I’ve talked about the Blessed Mother, Mary, journalist Ezra Klein, artist and author Brother Mickey McGrath, writer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer and actress Carrie Fisher, and St. Elen of Caernarfon.
With Gishwhes beginning at the end of this week, I thought that I would briefly introduce this audience to Misha Collins.
I became aware of Misha through a friend of mine who convinced me to join his gishwhes team, which ended up being all full up. That’s another story, though. Gishwhes is the acronym for its description: the greatest international scavenger hunt the world has ever seen. Misha pronounces it gish-ways; I pronounce it gish-weeeessss.
In addition to Gishwhes being a scavenger hunt, it is also an opportunity to move out of your comfort zone by being creative, artistic, and kind. Part of the fun of gishwhes is trying new things, meeting new people, working together as a team even if you never meet them, and connecting through art and kindness.
Misha’s an actor who I’ve seen several times before although I don’t remember any of the ones before Supernatural.
He’s married and he and his wife, Dr. Victoria Vantoch have two children. They live primarily in California, but also spend a large chunk of the year in Vancouver where Supernatural films.
Misha began the charity, Random Acts in 2009, showing his fans how to direct their energy to make lives better by doing small, seemingly insignificant things, but that were huge things for the families involved, and of course, as anyone who does any kind of volunteer work knows, it gives great joy for the person on the giving end of things.
Some of the bigger things that Random Acts has done over the years has been bringing hope to Jacmel, Haiti after the island’s devastating earthquake, building a free high school in Nicaragua. Last year, they helped two Syrian refugee families, and this year they began a crisis support network to help those in danger of suicide and self-harm. Sometimes, all you need is someone to talk to at the right time. it doesn’t make it all better, but it does help.
Recently, he’s been involved in political issues like resisting the current Administration’s and Congress’ rollback of civil rights and environmental protections, and encouraging petitions and supporting candidates across the country. Many would say that this isn’t the role of a mere actor, but this is not out of the realm of his skill set. Of course, any member of society can and should involve themselves in politics and political causes, but in his case for the many naysayers out there, he went to the University of Chicago for public policy, and was an intern at the White House during the Clinton years.
I attribute what I did yesterday with my kids directly or indirectly to Misha’s influence as well as my experiences in Gishwhes. I saw a friend’s post on Facebook about something going on in the capital. I thought that it would be fun to visit, and maybe I’d take the kids on Friday or sometime next week. I looked at the clock, pretty much decided to miss church, and go back to sleep when I was jolted. It wasn’t anything paranormal or a voice in my head, but suddenly, I was bolting out of bed, waking my two youngest kids, telling them they had ten minutes to be ready: we were going to church, breakfast at McDonald’s, and then a huge surprise.
They were not terribly put off, although they don’t usually go with me to church, and they really don’t like it very much, but they didn’t argue, they didn’t badger me about what the surprise was, and to be honest, they were extraordinarily well behaved and cooperative all throughout the day, never once complaining about the heat or that they were hungry.
I’m not sure i would have had the energy or the wherewithal to just get up and go like that if I hadn’t been participating in Gishwhes for the past five years. It wasn’t as though I was doing anything crazy; just a little out of the ordinary.
And that’s what I should be teaching my kids. There are times for order, and there are times for spontaneity and surprises. Except for breakfast (and the subsequent parking ticket), this was a free day. And it was so inexpensive that I treated them to another surprise on the way home: 50c Frosties at Wendy’s.
Misha Collins is that bee in your bonnet, Mona Lisa smile, Jiminy Cricket, and he’s the friend who pushes you just a little, but holds on so you don’t fall. And he’ll bring the band-aids.
…The Unexpected.
Waiting in line today, I did a thing.
I don’t want to talk about the thing because it was a small thing, it was a kind thing, it was a spontaneous thing, and talking about the actual thing sounds like I’m asking for a pat on the back, which in reality I don’t deserve. It really was that small.
So I did a thing, a good thing, a random acts kind of thing.
The woman was surprised.
I was surprised at my stepping forward so publicly.
The people between us weren’t quite sure what to make of it. They could have done the thing, but it didn’t occur to them. That’s not a value judgment. I went back and forth for what seemed like a long time deciding if I wanted to go ahead and draw the attention to myself. That’s just how it is for all of us. We’re going about our days, and the opportunities arise. We either take them or we don’t. It doesn’t actually matter either way, but what happened today was –
The Unexpected.
The woman received something unexpected that wasn’t about the specific thing, but about something else, and I received something unexpected as well.
We shared this moment, but it wasn’t just our moment. It was her toddler son and her husband across the way. It was the women between us, and the women behind the counter; a moment shared by all.
A shared thing.
I didn’t realize how good it would make me feel. It wasn’t hubris or pride, but it was that I did something that made someone else’s life a tiny bit easier, and it made my life a bit better and positive.
So when the moments appear, do the thing.
On the most recent Saturday, Gishwhes 2016 came to an end. I think this might have been the best year yet. The items were a nice balance of good deeds, insane impossibilities, creativity, and small doses of public humiliation.
This year we squirted milk out of our noses, sold bottles of air, helped the homeless, raised money for FOUR Syrian refugee families (two was the original goal), tweeted Mike Pence the dangers of smoking, tweeted Lin-Manuel Miranda other historical raps, and sent postcards to William Shatner, who had the last laugh by giving out Misha Collins’ address. Well played, Bill.
The whole family got involved whether they wanted to or not. And they liked it.
Gishwhes for 2016 has ended, and it’s taken me these two days to recover-ish. I’ve got 99% of my leftovers in a bag for next year or for supplying the kids for craft projects that they come up with for the rest of the summer and into the new school year.
Second year in a row that we’ve had a phenomenal team. We had eight returning teammates and of the new seven members, we had only one MIA.
We’re named Brave Little Ants, which is a Supernatural reference. We’ve managed to find a boatload of motivational ant graphics, highlighting their strength and teamwork.
For a time in Boston, Misha lived near Miss Jean Louis. She was an odd duck and she was ancient then; there’s no telling how old she really is.
Through gishwhes we know her as Misha’s elusive babysitter, but she actually babysat for him and his brother as well as some of the other neighborhood misfits when Misha was young.
She discovered the group figgzerblatzing behind the school and after loudly admonishing them, complete with gesturing wildly with hands and feet, she was the first to tell them that proper figgzerblatz was only to be done in the privacy of your own home, preferably alone and when no one was in the house. Misha never forgot this important life lesson. In fact, it deeply scarred him. His brother, not so much.
Miss Jean Louis fixed snacks for the neighbor kids every day. She had, and still has an odd obsession with k*le and rainbow sprinkles. She put them in, and on, everything. K*le cupcakes. K*le popcorn. K*le salad. K*le pizza. All with rainbow sprinkles.
When Miss Jean Louis would send Misha home after babysitting she would tell him to gish on. He wasn’t sure what that meant back then; I’m not sure he understands any better now.
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 