#WordofMouth18 (My Lips Are Sealed), But Kudos to @mrsherzogSHS & @RebeccaMarsuk

Kim Herzog, self-named fan girl (who I dub
self-made achiever)

So, there's a little something something brewing in southern Connecticut, with Staples High School at the helm. It has to do with stories and a festival and a celebration of the Saugatuk River that runs through Westport, Connecticut. Kim Herzog, who has worked with CWP-Fairfield and also carried forth a tremendous LRNG Innovation grant project via John Legend, MacArthur, and NWP, met with many of us last night to share a brilliant, innovative idea. It's happening.

Kim reached out to CWP-Fairfield last fall and, of course, we said, "We're in...let us know what we need to do."

The vision of the project is to get writers and storytellers in every shop of downtown Westport, along the Saugatuck, and to create a festival of stories over two days. The Westport Library is (as is the entire high school) in and it is amazing what has already been secured. It's historical. It's brilliant. It's unbelievable. It is UBUNTU.

Thanks to Poppy, a student at Staples High School and participant in Project Citizen (and her fast cell phone work), we also learned that Saugatuck means "Word of Mouth," which is a perfect expression for this storytelling vision that is happening (oh, it's happening). Kim and Rebecca (stellar educators and CWP alumni) reached out to me and Shaun Mitchell, Central High School teacher in Bridgeport, to dream about what might come next, especially in regard to a youth board and announcement of potential YA authors to be part of this festival.

This is where the cat (meow meow) needs to remain in the bag, but last night books were delivered to the youth board in preparation of the October festival. For those that want to put it on the calendar, mark October 13th & 14th.

It is really, really, really difficult to keep quiet, but I know suspense is enormous for the world. The wait is worth every second of this magic (The Great Whatever is definitely at work). Let's just say that yesterday was an entire day of strange, beautiful coincidences. In a world of crazy, it's so good to be able to focus on the good! the awesome! the magic!

Last night, however, a meeting was hosted to create a youth board for the project who will be central for the YA portion of the #WordofMouth18 movement - Saugatuck Book Festival. Shaun and I were proud to bring a student form Central High School and Bassick High School to the Staples High School youth community. Hearing the young people brainstorm who they want to be part of this brilliant project was part of the incredible evening I had last night. They were told, "Dream big kids. If you don't dream, you can't change the world. Education and stories matter."

For now, what I can say is that Connecticut needs to prepare itself for the invasion of awesome writers, great authors, tremendous youth communities, the power for challenging zip code divisions, and the vision of fantastic movers and shakers like Kim, Rebecca and Shaun. If you dream it, it will come.

Stay Tuned!

(Actually, they will come....and are coming). How's that for a teaser?