October 30th, 2020
Thank you for taking the time to read this message. The past eight months have been a roller coaster ride for all of us, and I don’t want to go another minute without extending a sincere thank you from my team and from me, personally, for the love and support you’ve shown us. I also want to share a little about our experience and our mission at Meri Cherry Art Studio moving forward:
In late 2019, I made a list of goals for 2020. My goals were hopes and dreams for the upcoming year, and I planned to refer to them throughout the year to focus my energy and help me manifest them.
When the COVID pandemic hit in March, I thought all my dreams were shattered. I thought everything I had built was gone. I cried for two days straight -- the kind of cries that would just come in sobbing heaves, and I didn’t even bother trying to stop them. Meri Cherry Art Studio has been a labor of love and determination for years, and I was devastated that something I had worked so hard for was going to be taken from right under my feet.
Fortunately, my husband Ev is slightly less dramatic than I am, and he helped me see that my dream wasn’t gone. He said if I stayed the course, it would get bigger and better. So, I made the incredibly difficult decision to furlough my team and I gave myself the freedom to slow down, to be with my family at home and to get creative again. Like all of us, I had no idea what would happen, but I believed that the universe would guide me.
Sure enough, eight months later, here we are. Our team has all been hired back, though Eryn, who we all love dearly, has taken a different path than expected and had a baby! Welcome Rory Kurzeka to our amazing community! We can’t wait for her to come to her first Toddler Art Playgroup. In addition to hiring everyone back, we also added three new members to our team. Please welcome our new Mobile teachers, Tess and Soul, and our new Mobile Class Coordinator, Krissy. We are thrilled to welcome them to our team!
My biggest goal for the year, the one that truly resonated and got me the most excited, was to raise $50,000 for women caught in the cycle of abuse. I had read the book No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder, and though it was extremely painful to read, it spoke to my heart.
At the beginning of the year, I had spoken with my team and had shared that this was something I really wanted to focus on. We hadn't taken action yet, and then, when COVID-19 hit, 2020 presented a series of tidal waves that took all of our bandwidth to weather.
Now that there are only two months left of 2020, and I have become a much stronger swimmer in a tidal wave, I don’t want to lose sight of my biggest goal for the year.
As Rachel Louise Snyder's book states: "Violence inside the home isn't a private matter; it’s a public epidemic and yet it remains locked in silence, even as its tendrils reach unseen into so many of our most pressing concerns, from mass shootings to mass incarceration to #MeToo."
I know this is a heavy subject and I know, as women, we all have experienced things in our lives that may touch the heart of this subject, or perhaps just the fringes. Wherever your experience lands on that spectrum, it’s still there. If there is something I can do to change the lives of the women caught in the cycle of abuse, I'm all in.
I have started a fundraising page with the intention of raising $50,000 for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I have made the first donation of $1000 to this fund, which means we have only $49,000 left to go. We’re already on our way! With your help, I know we will continue to get closer and closer and eventually achieve my dream of raising $50,000 for women who need a helping hand to change and perhaps even save their lives. Will you join me?
Meri Cherry Art Studio has been incredibly fortunate over these past eight months. We have managed to pivot, pivot and pivot again to support our studio, keep our team working and provide Process Art Magic to children and families all over the world. This has been a great gift. If there is anything I can do to say thank you, I now know this is it.
Thank you so much for your incredible support. If you’ve ever taken a class, come to a birthday party, bought one of our boxes or just watched from afar and felt inspired here, I ask that you make a donation. No amount is too small.
We appreciate you so much. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey, and I can't wait to see where this takes us.
With love and gratitude,
Meri Cherry and Everyone at Meri Cherry Art Studio
*edit* Only 3 hours after we sent this newsletter and opened our fundraising page, we've already raised almost $2,000 toward this cause! Thank you!
