Thank you, Facebook. Seriously.
A dozen or so years ago, a simple Facebook post about Donut Day set a series of wheels in motion. A friend of a longtime friend wound up visiting my church because of the connection. A few months later, I had the honor of baptizing him. It was a pretty cool series of events that all began because of a silly Facebook post.^
I feel like stories like these have been few and far-between recently. Social media has been so full of toxicity, anger, and general meanness. And don’t get me started on all of the misinformation that people continue to spread. It’s downright awful.
Social media – especially Facebook – has done a pretty good job of amplifying the worst of humanity. It can be pretty depressing sometimes. There are times when I jokingly tell people that if it wasn’t for my job responsibilities, I’d have probably left Facebook long ago. OK. Sometimes I’m only half-joking. It’s pretty tempting to just leave it all.*
But then something magical happens, restoring just a little bit of my faith in humanity.
A few years back, I stumbled upon Gracie’s story. I followed her Facebook page and have been riveted by her story over the years. I’d never met Gracie, Augie, and the rest of her family, but I’m in their corner. Some of Gracie’s story is similar to Mihret’s. We know what it’s like to have to advocate and fight for your daughter.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but Mihret is a big fan of Summer Camp. Like…a HUGE fan. She’s been to a local camp that was run by Riley Children’s Hospital. She calls that “Riley Camp.” There’s another camp in Kentucky – Center for Courageous Kids – that she’s been to a couple of times. She loves it. It’s a medical camp and is completely free for campers to attend. She affectionately calls this camp “Kentucky Camp.”
Makes sense. Right?
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, both Riley Camp and Kentucky Camp were cancelled the last few years. We thought she was going to be able to attend Kentucky Camp this year, but things fell through at the last minute.
So, there we were – the middle of May and no Summer Camp for Mihret. She was able to go to a two-day church camp at nearby Camp Allendale last year, but even that wasn’t going to work out for her this year. Things were lining up for Mihret to have a pretty bummer summer.
One morning at the end of May, I happened to be reading through comments on one of the posts on Fight Like a Grrl’s Facebook page. I know. It’s usually a good rule not to read through the comments on Facebook posts. They’re full of trolls, hucksters, and other dregs of humanity. Fortunately, this online community is nothing of the sort. So I kept reading.
And then I saw that Gracie’s mom had replied to another mom’s comment::
Ohio?
That’s doable.
Free?
That’s definitely doable
I quickly looked up Flying Horse Farms on the web. I really liked what I saw. So I sent the information to Christy, suggesting that this might be a way we could rescue Mihret from a bummer summer.
She agreed and emailed the camp before we even had the chance to talk about it. After a few emails, some required statements from her doctors, and a completed application, she was in! Mihret got to go to camp this year!
Good things CAN happen because of Facebook – sometimes
Thanks to social media, Mihret was able to have a great experience at camp, and definitely did not have a bummer summer.
So I guess I should say “Thank you, Facebook.” I guess I’ll stick around a little bit longer.
Endnotes
^I reflected on this event a year later. You can read those reflections here. It’s still one of my favorite stories.
*If I ever do leave Facebook, I’m not going to announce my departure like so many people did when all of these wannabe social media networks popped up. And I certainly won’t come back like I said they would when they left the first time.
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