This is a story I wrote for The Hollywood Reporter about Jennifer Pastiloff and Dayna Mondello’s On Being Human 2020 Direct Giving Campaign. They are raising money to give people who need groceries $100 grocery cards during the COVID-19 pandemic. All kinds of Hollywood celebrities, like Pink, Maria Bello, Grey’s Anatomy stars and Grey’s showrunner, Krista Vernoff, Mark Duplass, Paulina Porizkova, Annie Sertich, and tons and tons of interesting people (many more are listed in the article with more being booked every day) are participating in Jen’s Instagram chats. (@jenpastiloff)
Of course, I dug into the story with the angle of exploring if there were epiphanies behind this incredibly quick movement (this was up and running within DAYS) and of course, there were.
This is what I always talk about–why it is SO IMPORTANT TO ACT on your epiphanies. You always cause a Ripple Effect when you do, whether you know it or not. This one happens to be a great example of people taking action on their epiphanies and causing a Ripple Effect we can all see (and be a part of)!
Please read the story to see what I’m talking about and if you want to do more, you can go watch some of Jen’s Instagram chats and DONATE to the campaign. Even $1-5 adds up and makes a huge difference. The story ran on April 11, 2020 and by today, April 15, 2020, they’ve raised another $30,000+. Giving can change your life as much as receiving.
During this crazy time for us all, I’ve been having a lot of epiphanies about myself, life and my way of reacting and being in the world, and I’m sure you are too. Witnessing and writing this story really brought home for me:
Every action we take, no matter how big or how small, especially when we do it with intention, matters.
As Jen and Dayna say in the article:
“I acted on the whole idea, ‘I got you,’ which is my first tattoo I recently got, when I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious, as most of us are right now,” says Pastiloff. “Because I’d had experience with direct giving before (Pastiloff learned everything she knows about direct giving from Simone Gordon, @theblackfairygodmotherofficial, who has been running direct giving campaigns for seven years), I had faith when I posted that meme that some direct giving would happen. And it did. People are really supportive. Everything flashed into motion. We all said yes. Dayna said yes. I said yes. We now have a whole team saying yes. And well-known people in entertainment are saying yes to the goal of helping people in small ways get through this crazy time. It’s amazing and so moving.”
Continues Pastiloff, “Even if someone can’t donate, they can come hang out with us and ask questions and maybe walk away with some inspiration and interesting insights which we also need during this time.”
Adds Mondello, “Last weekend, we heard Leonardo DiCaprio raised like $12 million in five minutes, and at first we were like, ‘Wow, what are we doing?’ But then we realized that we’re a different deal — we’re a homegrown, grassroots movement. We’re also collecting and sharing stories and the money is going straight into people’s hands. And all of us involved are growing and getting so much out of this endeavor. The epiphany for me is the inexplicable link between giving and receiving — to give really is to receive — there’s just so much power and healing in it. Now that knowledge is in my bones.”
