Want to send in a valentine to rural organizers? Read on for more details and submit it using the form below!
Rural Organizing Project has a long history of taking time on Valentine’s Day to remind each other that we’re united by love and hope and that we’ve got each other’s backs! For those of you who have been around ROP for a while, you may remember getting a hand-made Valentine in the mail from ROP’s founder Marcy Westerling!
More than ever this year, we could all use a reminder that we’re connected as a network to thousands of organizers around the state making up our movement for rural justice. Is there anything more loving than all of us working together for dignity and joy? We’re excited to roll out Valentines to Rural Organizers, where we get to share love notes with each other, from Curry to Wallowa County and everywhere in between!
How will it work? The ROP Staff team gather little notes, poems, or artwork from you and then share them back out over ROPnet (our email newsletter… you can sign up here!) and hopefully even make a special episode of Rural Roots Rising, our monthly radio show and podcast, where folks read out the valentines. We want to create a record of the creativity and care that flows through this web of organizers. We have brainstormed multiple ways to participate, and we’d love to hear your creative ideas! What else can we do with these valentines? Choose one or more of the ways below to join in:
- Email hannah@rop.org with a few words of encouragement for your fellow organizers or submit them through the form below. You can share a favorite poem or lyrics from a song that helps lift your spirits. We’ll turn it into a valentine like this:
- Make an actual valentine (I know some of y’all have a stash of doilies lying around) or a piece of artwork and send us a photo at hannah@rop.org or by uploading it in the form below!
- Record yourself reading your valentine and email it to us at hannah@rop.org or upload it to the form below. We hope to include a bunch of them in a special Rural Roots Rising episode! There are plenty of free voice recorder apps available, but one we like is Rev. Let us know if you want to make a recording but need help figuring it out!
- Want a rural organizing pen pal? Let us know and we’ll try to match you up with another organizer in the network!
- Folks in the ROP network have often used Valentine’s Day as an opportunity for some creative organizing, including sending valentines to former Representative Greg Walden’s office that said “Have a heart, Walden!” Do you have something to say to Representative Bentz or another elected official? Get your group together and send some valentines with your thoughts about the issues you care about!
Submit your valentines by filling out the form below or emailing us at hannah@rop.org! We can’t wait to read your notes and see what other ideas you come up with. Thanks for being our valentine!