The Safety Pin movement is such a simple and yet perfect concept. Wear a safety pin to show that you support kindness, compassion, fairness and diversity. And that you are an ally for anyone feeling afraid because of discrimination of any kind.
What a beautiful concept. I like to think it is the American way.
To bring more attention and add more love to the concept, I decided to make little hearts from paper clay and attach them to my safety pins. I shared them with friends and family. Each recipient was so happy to wear their pin that I thought about getting more people making them so more people could share them. Plus what a wonderful way to gather people together for a common good.
So I recruited a group of generous, creative women who formed an assembly line of crafters. And on a rainy Sunday afternoon, we gathered together at a donated space with all our supplies. First we all made hearts with paper clay, and then when we amassed a bunch of them, we broke into smaller groups to insert the wire hangers, dry them, paint them, attach them to the pins and coat them with gloss varnish. Together we made more than 350 of them. It was uplifting, healing and reaffirming for all of us and at the end of the day, each person left with a collection of heart pins to share.
We decided to call them Take Heart Safety Pins. And I created a youtube video showing how to make them so that maybe others will make and share them in their own communities.
And thank you for being a good person and caring enough to read this whole blog entry.