I was sitting around last Wednesday, I can’t exactly recall what I was doing with precision, when what should I get alerted to in my Twitter feed but this little gem:
Look, we’re a Finalist in the category of Best Ensemble Cast!
Now I will admit, I was utterly floored by this. I’ve never been involved as a nominee in the WEGO Health Activist Awards before, but having not heard anything since we were first officially nominated, which was beginning of January (and which you can read more about here), I kind of just assumed we had washed out in the semifinals or something and that was that.
So when I saw this tweet — you could have knocked me over with a feather! We’re a finalist, a finalist, really, for Best Ensemble Cast!
So the flurry of re-tweets and tweets directed to, then from and between, Team Canvas (or, since it’s Twitter, #TeamCanvas) members commenced. Next came the communications through facebook, and once I triple-checked that everyone actually involved directly in the project knew by sending out emails and waiting a few days, I couldn’t stand it any longer and had to make the announcement to you, our wonderful family of readers!
I know this next part is supposed to be for if we win, but you know what. . .
This is really something else to me. To have an organization like WEGO Health come along and look at what we have accomplished here — what I still think of as this little family coming together because we know our voices will be louder when heard together, and that we will be stronger when we have each other to lean upon — but to have them, to have their judges see in each person, and all of us as a whole team one tenth of what I do, words just don’t exist for that feeling.
To me, the Best Ensemble Cast Award is so special because it recognizes what we do together, it recognizes what each of us contributes as individuals, but most importantly it recognizes us. Yes, we have created this amazing space, and I’m very proud of that. But we, each of us, contributes our selves by writing and sharing and living with mental illness 24/7. We are saying, “I got through this, you can, too. You are not alone. I’ve felt just like you have. I don’t have all of the answers, sometimes I don’t have any, but I know that having answers isn’t always the point.”
Congratulations to everyone on Team Canvas, no matter what comes next; the biggest win for all of us is just having found each other and, together, making this space the success that it is!
Check out the rest of the amazing #HAAwards Finalists – Best Ensemble Cast Award! here.
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Wow, well done to the Canvas Team!
We all thank you very, very much! We’ll let you know what happens next! 🙂
I just checked the WEGO site to see if the WINNER! of the group blog category was posted, and I did not see that it was, or at least I did not find it. What I did find, is that the winners of the individual blog categories are posted–and they are the bee’s knees! I was literally blown over by the bold and full-of-heart-ness (sorry, it’s too early for my brain to think of words yet) of each and every winner–and now I can’t get out of the recliner because of being blown over, so I’ll have to sit here and finish my coffee instead. I’m going to have some new blogs to follow now, for sure. Anyway, this is a circuitous way of saying that we, as Canvas, are in some mighty wonderful company, and whether or not we come out as the WINNER! of our category, the fact that we are finalists is a big, big win for mental health activism and of course for us. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ruby and Lulu for starting and growing Canvas. See what you’ve done now? What a wonderful thing!
Well, this isn’t technically a blog category at all. If you look at the other organizations in our grouping (and you should), you will see some absolutely amazing organizations, and I believe we are the only one that is technically a blog. I don’t know how long it will take them to choose, or what comes next, but I got an email letting me know that there would be a new badge available for our site today (have to go check that out), which is why I pushed this post up by a day.
I agree, I am so delighted that this is bringing mental health activism so much into the spotlight. I thank you, and I know Lulu does, too, for your kind words. I don’t know what we had in mind, or even if we had anything specifically in mind, really for where this thing would eventually go — but wow!
This is exciting! Well done team canvas! 🙂 xx
It is, isn’t it? Thank you for always being so supportive!
Reblogged this on I Was Just Thinking. . . and commented:
A Canvas Of The Minds is a finalist for the WEGO Health Activist Best Ensemble Cast Award!
Oh wow! Congratulations to team Canvas, each of you rock!
Red, thank you! I happen to think we’re pretty special, but I’m not quite objective. 🙂
Go Team! Congratulations!!!! xoxoM
Hooray! Margarita, thank you so much for your support!
YAY! Good job 🙂
Thank you, Jen! (That “Good job” with the smiley next to it makes it feel like an assignment for elementary school — I like that!)
If I was a teacher I’d SO be the kind who would draw smiley faces on papers.
You would, too! Didn’t you ever get real live actual stickers, though? Or was that only in the Elysian days of my Pleasant Hills youth?
I did. I had a teacher one year who gave out puffy stickers on tests. It was the best.
Now THAT is a teacher who is clearly in it for the right reasons!
So proud and happy for y’all! Way to go, Team Canvas!
Emily, you are so very sweet, thank you so much for showing your support! Now if we win the whole deal, I want to see C clapping for us! 😉
Congratulations! This blog is a winner, no matter what happens. So exciting!
Janet, I feel the exact same way! But it is still very exciting! It can’t be said enough, thank you for always being so supportive!
Congratulations on making the finals!
Thank you very much! We’re so excited!