It is with great joy and gratitude that I tell you this story today.  Because of your belief in my "Volunteer Biographers" idea, I sent out the following letter today to family friends and local senior communities.  I have no idea if this particular "seed" of love will take root, but it certainly gives me a lot of joy to dream about the beautiful flowers that may bloom from it. =)

Thank you SO much for believing in this idea!  It was delayed a bit in January due to illness.  I am so grateful to everyone who responded to Bela's initial post with my thank you note.  I will try to connect with each of you.  If anyone has any suggestions or ideas please let me know. I have never done anything like this before so this is all "seat-of-my-pants" forward motion.  ^_^

I will keep you updated as we hear back!  
_________________________________


Greetings from Delaware City!

My name is Micky O'Toole and I'm the co-creator of a new non-profit group called Volunteer Biographers. We launched in December 2014 with a grant from ServiceSpace.org.


Volunteer Biographers

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The idea for Volunteer Biographer was born 34 years ago in 1980. I was a new bride and my husband was on 6-months assignments to different cities around the country. Instead of looking for work, I found the Evanston Volunteer Pool. My first assignment was an elderly lady I called "Bacca." She was 95 at a time (1980). She still lived alone. She was 14 when the 20th Century was born and 28 when World War I broke out. I helped her shop and cook, but mostly she just wanted company. I loved to spend time with her, to listen to her stories. My regret was that I never wrote those down.

When my dad got sick in 2007 I was between jobs. I took care of him while my mom worked. It was the longest stretches of time we ever spent together alone. In those beautiful hours, he told me stories of his life. I did write those down. My dad died two years ago. He was 92-years old, nearly 20 years older than my mom. I wanted to continue this idea.

In 2014, I found KindSpring.org and their sister site, ServiceSpace. KindSpring has a page for submitting volunteer ideas. If they like your idea, they will choose you for a small stipend. I submitted the idea for Volunteer Biographers and was thrilled when it was chosen in December of 2014! We just opened our doors. I am so excited about this new endeavor.


Here's our PledgePages website for more information:
http://jazztizz.pledgepage.org/

Biographies

The biographies can be anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 words long. The time for each is completely up to the individual. They can include photos of family. These can be made into graphics to illustrate chapter headings, or the book cover.   Here are some examples of graphics done for my family in the past few years:

Graphics Examples
(on Volunteer Biographers Pledge Pages)
http://jazztizz.pledgepage.org/photos.php

Family Pic 1944
3gen
Mom birthday 2013
Kel and Tom
Graduation
Kelly age 2.5
Kelly Collage
Kel and Evie
Kelly collage 2


Next Steps:
We are looking for both biography candidates who wish their life story to be written. We're also looking for volunteers.


Biography Candidates

First we meet with the candidates by email, face-to-face or via Skype to determine what kind of biography they would like to put together. Some prefer a series of vignettes told in an approximately chronological fashion. Others prefer a more strict adherence to the traditional biography with details about family tree, birth places, births, and celebrations that take place one year at a time.

At the first meeting we give the candidate a packet of questions. Ideally this meeting will include family members since they will be crucial to the biography process. The questionnaire will depend on which method of biography the candidates choose. Each questionnaire will also include a letter to be sent to family which will describe the creative endeavor and will encourage family members to submit their own questions. This is definitely a family affair. =)


After the questionnaires are returned, our Volunteer Biographer (VB) will meet with the candidate once or twice a week at a time and place convenient to both. This meeting can take place by phone, web-conference or face-to-face. The VB will go over the questionnaire and ask a series of follow-up questions in order to flesh out the story.


I estimate that it will take about 10 hours for a 10,000 word story and about 50 hours for 50,000 word story from the first interview until the completion of the bound and illustrated book. This is probably a very generous estimate. Right now, we have one Volunteer Biographer on staff (me) with one assistant (my son Joe). But as our group grows, we hope to include more and more.


Basically, each candidate should look at it taking as little as two months until completion of their story up to a six months or more. This depends of course on how much time each week they can devote to the project and on their overall long-term goals.


Volunteers

Volunteer Biographers: Volunteer biographers will need to be able to write and, ideally, to have some conversational and people skills. Anyone, even students can join, but if children wish to become Volunteer Biographers they will need to be accompanied by an adult. Volunteers will be assigned candidates that are as close to their location as possible so that face-to-face meetings, which are optimal, can take place. If this isn't possible, then Volunteers ideally will have a way to use Skype or the telephone. Again, if a child is a volunteer, they will need adult supervision.


Volunteer Editors. These are the folks behind the scenes who take a final look at all the drafts and make sure they are perfect. Each candidate will be involved in the editing process as much as possible. Volunteer Editors, however, will be really good at spotting grammar, punctuation and syntax errors.


Volunteer Graphic Artists. Each book has the option to include simple artwork or photo manipulation. Graphic artists ideally must have a scanner to scan family photos and a photoshop or paintshop to create borders collages and more. (See examples above.)


Volunteer Printers. Right now we'll be using Staples or a similar franchise to bind the stories. But if anyone has access to a printing press this option is definitely open.


Cost
There is no cost involved. This is a creative volunteer endeavor of love in the spirit of "gift-ivism." (For more about "gif-tiv-ism" 2:00 ♥ see Nipun Mehta's TedX Talk, "Designing for Generosity." Nipun is one of the founders of ServiceSpace and KindSpring.org.)

So there is no cost, but there will be an agreement between the biographer and candidate that their story not be sold for profit but that the gift of the time and love that goes into creation of each beautiful story will simply be paid forward.


If you know of anyone in your community that would be interested in becoming a Volunteer Biographer Candidate or a Volunteer, please let me know. If you have any questions or need more information, don't hesitate to ask.

I look forward very much to hearing from you!

Creatively yours,
Micky O'Toole

Co-Creator "Volunteer Biographers" - Delaware