Sidewalk chalk drawing that says "Let every setback be a lesson and every lesson a ladder"
Sidewalk chalk drawing near a school entrance. The drawing says "Let every setback be a lesson and every lesson a ladder"
The purple isn't showing very well in the pictures, but we got to play with some color today.
At Oak Park High School - Student Entrance
... local food bank, they have always wanted to help. I’m not religious either (raised in it, but…), and I’ll gladly take that blessing.
...rude or standoffish, but they have always tried to help others when they could. From giving away their gloves to cold classmates in winter (I had to start carrying extra pairs and make them promise me they would not give away their coats) to begging to donate their Christmas money to the...
And you made me cry again (in a good way). My kids are mostly grown now (one in college and one in high school), and they have such amazing, sweet hearts that I’ve tried to protect from the world. Not everyone gets them because autism and anxiety can bring some voice tones or mannerisms that seem...
Sidewalk chalk drawing that says, "To the buses we waved to before." with tracings of our hands and lines beside them to show them "waving". My kids signed their names below their hands, so I (poorly) copied sidewalk over the names.
I found where we left a message for our bus drivers at the elementary school. This was March 29, 2020. Waving to the bus drivers during that time was the only thing that felt normal.
... wouldn’t know why/how we started waving. When our schools went virtual, our school district distributed lunches at bus stops and then from select schools. It took us a while to figure out their new routine to go out to wave to them, so the chalk drawing was a replacement. (5/5)
... they were OUR bus drivers even though my kids were never on their bus. At the end of each school year, my kids would make signs thanking them for the smiles and waves and hold them on our walk to school. Every few years, I made cards to give them when I saw we had new drivers who...(4/5)
... waving to any bus driver just to keep moving forward. Looking for the next bus and the next wave was the only way I got my kids to school that day. Not all of them saw us that first day, but we kept waving, and soon more looked for us and would wave. A few years went by with waving, and...(3/5)
... weather made it rough. There was a bus driver who would wave to us and ask how my oldest was doing when he happened to see us at the school. On one of those bad days when the snow was piled high, we were looking for him just to get through our walk. We didn’t see him, but we started...(2/5)
Now I’m emotional, and you’re going to get more than you ever bargained for with a long story. 😁 The waving hand was for the bus drivers that we missed getting to wave to when everything shut down. I walked my kids to school during their elementary and middle school years, and sometimes the...(1/5)
And here is where the part of the Gilligan’s Island song of “a three hour tour” tends to pop into my head. 😂
Sidewalk chalk drawings of a sun, flower, footprints, and "G'morning!"
Sidewalk chalk drawing of flowers.
Sidewalk chalk drawings of flowers, footprints, and a hand waving with "Hi!" below it.
Sidewalk chalk drawing of a heart with smaller hearts inside it.
I don’t know when we started making chalk drawings at the bus stops for the lunch distribution, but today marks 6 years since the first chalk drawings at Antioch middle school. The whole family joined in to make these. It was only supposed to be for a couple of days/weeks, tops.
(2/2) Some people just see a chalk drawing, but some see more. They see that someone cares enough to spend time to leave them a message, and they see they’re not alone, even if we never meet. Thank you to anyone who sees the chalk drawings for the chalky “hugs” they are.
Two people holding a certificate that says, "Certificate of Appreciation - One Chalk Army - In Appreciation of Your Support of 2026 Northland Ethnic Festival"
My amazing helper and I were given a sweet surprise when we went to the festival yesterday. I gave the coordinator a card on Friday that thanked them for letting me make a chalk drawing, and explained how the drawings are the closest I can get to hugging everyone and telling them we value them.(1/2)
I appreciate the festival for building community and giving me hope. And I get to add another school/school district to my list of where we've made a chalk drawing.
Sidewalk chalk drawing that says Everyone Belongs with handprints making a heart shape around the text. The handprints are in different colors and skin tones.
Sidewalk chalk drawing in front of a school. The chalk drawing says Everyone Belongs with handprints making a heart shape around the text. The handprints are in different colors and skin tones.
For the Northland Ethnic Festival tomorrow. The last year has left me feeling helpless, and while I know chalk drawings don't fix anything, it's the closest I can get to hugging people and telling them they matter, so chalk drawings will have to do.
At Platte Purchase Middle School
... confirm they were his or find their actual source. This is one from that site, so instead of citing him in the drawing, I would have liked to have included, "Attributed to Langston Hughes, but I couldn't confirm. Go read Langston Hughes." But it would have been longer than the "quote" was. (2/2)
Sidewalk chalk drawing that says, "Hope does not erase hardship; it teaches us to walk through it."
Sidewalk chalk drawing in front of a school entrance. The chalk drawing says, "Hope does not erase hardship; it teaches us to walk through it."
On my quest to find a Langston Hughes quote to chalk at the library before their Langston Hughes event, I came across a website with pages of great quotes that were supposedly by him. But, so far, for all the ones I've checked, I haven't been able to... (1/2)
At Oak Park High School
For the different color hands and saying they all belong. And you worded it nicer than my thoughts of them...
I had not heard of white charcoal before. My first thought was wondering if white charcoal was anything like charcoal at all, or if it's like white chocolate or vegan cheese. 😂
Yes, it's black chalk. I still worry about it staining the sidewalks, so I put it on top of other colors.
I say told because it really wasn't that America then either.
... when my oldest was in middle school, and chose Hughes as an author to study. He told me I should read something and shared Let America Be America Again with me. I will always want America to be the America I was told it was when I was growing up, and this, this isn't it.
Sidewalk chalk drawing that says, "Hold fast to dreams - Langston Hughes" in black text on a rainbowy, streaky background.
Sidewalk chalk drawing in front of a library. The chalk drawing says, "Hold fast to dreams - Langston Hughes" in black text on a rainbowy, streaky background.
Went back to grab daytime pictures. The library hosted the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Presents: Langston Hughes: A Lyrical Life yesterday. I didn't learn about Langston Hughes in school and had to wait until 2018...
At Green Hills Mid-Continent Public Library (the Friday night drawing)
It was a great movie, and that added to the experience. This cool theater is also showing Sinners in 70mm and had a discussion with "Film Critic and Black Movie Hall of Fame Founder Shawn Edwards with TBA special guest" yesterday, but we couldn't go to that one.
We are lucky to have a local theater owned by movie lovers, and saw a screening of it that included a talk after the movie with one of the owners, someone from a local bookstore, and a NASA Ambassador. They discussed the science in the book, how the movie followed the book, and answered questions.
I was so happy the library approved of this drawing! Most chalk drawings are surprises for them, but this is one I got permission for beforehand. It's horrible that simply saying everyone belongs and using handprints in a range of skin tones can bring complaints, but that's how it is these days.
Sidewalk chalk drawing that says, "Never let the dark convince you that brightness is gone."
Sidewalk chalk drawing in front of a library. The drawing says, "Never let the dark convince you that brightness is gone."
I made a quick chalk drawing while my kiddo participated in a class here.
At Antioch Mid-Continent Public Library
He told me I should read something and shared Let America Be America Again with me, and we both cried reading it. My children were young then, but not too young to see what was going on, even with parents who didn't talk politics around them. Same kid is now old enough to vote, and boy, do we talk.
The library is hosting Lyric Opera of Kansas City Presents: Langston Hughes: A Lyrical Life tomorrow. I didn't learn about Langston Hughes in school (church school in Texas, so no surprise there). I had to wait until 2018, when my oldest was in middle school, and chose Hughes as an author to study.