Sometimes I feel I spend a lot of time and energy trying to convince people why books are so important. "There are 60,000 kids growing up in our area without books, and if a child is not exposed to books by the time he or she enters kindergarten, the child is three to four times more likely to drop out of high school." Sometimes it's a tough sell, yet on and on I go, in an exuberant fashion. My dear friend and Co-Founder of "The Sandbox" Mara Campolungo and I often joke about this. All she has to say to get people to support her cause is "kids with cancer." People get it and immediately and flock to help. For me and my passion, it takes a good five minutes to really get someone to understand the magnitude and importance of what we do. But it is 5 minutes I will happily spend over and over again, with as many people who will listen. Anyone who knows me knows I am passionate about books. But to be honest, it's not the books I really care about. It's the kids. I truly believe if we can get books to kids at an early age, their brains will develop steadfastly, and our community, country and world will be a better place. I know every single book donated or dollar raised gets us one step closer to a world full of problem-solvers instead of potential problems.
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| Grandma and Little Kristi |
My grandmother was an avid reader. She loved the written word. Over the course of her life she wrote many beautiful short stories that will soon be published thanks to the hard work of my cousin, University of Indiana journalism student Katie Denta and her parents. My grandmother Elaine Louise Denta never went to college, but she could run circles around almost anyone when it came to knowledge and smart. In fact, I am sure she could find quite a few grammatical errors and misspelling on this here blog post. I can only imagine the red pen!
I was never able to share the vision or successes of Promising Pages with Grandma Denta. Even though I conceived the idea for the non-profit in 2008 and officially launched it in 2011, she never got it. When I was on CNN this past July, she was too far gone to understand.
Of all the people who volunteer with us and so profoundly get what we are doing here, she was the one person who would have needed no convincing; not because I'm her granddaughter, but because she exemplified everything that Promising Pages represents. In fact, Promising Pages is so much more her than me. If you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would spend my every waking non-familial moment dedicated to early childhood literacy, I would have chuckled. Yet here I am working my tail off to get donations and raise funds because I know the power of what we are doing. Maybe she does too now.
In July I, my 4 month old son, and my sister traveled to Ohio to visit her at her total care facility. She had no idea who we were, but she knew we were special. I wanted her to meet her first great grandson Nathaniel William. It was my husband's idea to make the trip and I'm glad I listened and I'm glad my Aunt Eileen was willing to cart us around. Grandma was funny and very sweet that day. She wanted to hold Nate and we got some very special pictures, one of which was buried with her in her casket.
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| Great Grandma and Baby Nate |
My grandmother died last Friday. My husband, son and I just returned home from her funeral services. She suffered from Alzheimer's for many years. It's a very unfair and cruel disease and to be honest, it actually more sad than anything. I feel sad, especially for my grandpa who is by himself now. We hope he comes for a nice long visit very soon. Their love was so pure and deep. Sometimes I felt as if I was watching a real live version of "The Notebook," still my favorite movie to date. Now that she's gone it brings me comforts to know that she's no longer confused and tortured by her lack of understanding. All of those frustrations must have dispelled the moment she took her last breath. She is finally at peace.
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| Grandma and Grandpa Denta |
My grandmother and I had a rocky relationship over the years. In fact it's safe to say we were at odds far more than we were on the same page. But this makes up for all of it. I know in my heart just how she feels about what I am doing with my life and I couldn't be more proud to share her legacy. Promising Pages is truly and literally now her legacy. Thank you to my aunt and uncles for the memorial suggestion. I am proud to be a part of such a selfless gesture.
Grandma, we thank you for all of your many positive influences. Know that your love of literacy got through to me and I am working very hard so that all kids will have the needed exposure to hopefully love and respect it as much as you did. We love you and miss you very much. I'm sorry you never got to hear about Promising Pages but I hope you know now, and understand.
Love your first grandchild,
Kristi
-Kristina Cruise
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