Gratitude Goggles

Gratitude. It’s a thing. It feels good—to instigate it, to be filled with it and to see things through the lens of it. If we could imagine slipping a pair of Gratitude Goggles on and taking a look around—things might be a lot more pleasant on a daily basis. We at The Room to Write would like you all to look through our Gratitude Goggles and see so many things we’re grateful for.

The day before Thanksgiving (speaking of gratitude:) members of the Board of Directors of The Room to Write walked into The Savings Bank to accept a check for $150 in celebration of the bank’s 150 year anniversary and given to local nonprofit organizations. We were so honored to be chosen and this donation from The Savings Bank arrives in time to help fund a memoir writing workshop, which is the focus of our next mention.

A great big THANK YOU goes out to the Stoneham Cultural Council that recently granted local author and speaker

Sandra Elaine Scott funding to sponsor her memoir writing workshop: “Everyone Has a Story” to be held at the Boys & Girls Club of Stoneham in June 2020. We are grateful for the support as we work to offer writing workshops in several communities that invite seniors, in particular, to share the stories, the lessons and the history they have witnessed from each of their unique perspectives. Along with Sandra’s efforts to inspire storytelling, we are grateful for two very busy writers who are committed to helping us bring writing workshops to seniors north of Boston: Sally Chetwynd and Abettina Dell’Orfano Morano.

Speaking of sharing stories—Linda Malcolm is a local author who is a member of The Room to Write and has been active in our monthly writers’ critique group for the past two years. Her writing has a quiet beauty that is both soothing and entertaining at once. We were so happy and proud to see her bring the baby she’d been working on for so long into the public eye through the publication of her newly released book—a collection of personal essays—Cornfields to Codfish. Thank you, Linda, for mentioning us on the back of your book and in your recent press release. To get a copy of her book click here. It captures the human spirit and includes some great recipes!

Last, but not least, because he is so humble that he’d prefer we didn’t mention him at all—we are appreciative of the support across the spectrum from local writer Brian McCoubrey. The Room to Write is so pleased that Brian accepted our invitation to join The Room to Write’s Board of Directors recently. He does not enjoy being in photos and so—in the absence of a photo—we will represent him with a simple rendition of Superman (also a writer:)! We are so pleased to have him as part of our Super Team (below) made up of: Roberta Hung, Treasurer; Jeanette Murray, Secretary; Colleen Getty, President; and Emily Seward, Vice President.