For the most part, our days in the home office are consistently busy and frequently beset with challenges, some of which we’re able to overcome, but that’s not always the case. A great many we have no option but to roll with and fundraising challenges sit high on the list.
When good news lands in the inbox, we celebrate its joyful arrival and yesterday, we all paused to reflect on a wonderfully unexpected, left of field whopper: Kate Winslet took time out during an interview with Dawn O’Porter from SAG-AFTRA to talk about what we do. During a lengthy segment that explores several issues around sustainability and taking responsibility for the carbon footprint we all create while we do our job, Kate kindly takes a few minutes to talk in great depth about what Word Forest does and we can’t wipe the smile off our faces: if you want to cut to it, go to 23 minutes in and listen from there.
Uplifting, illuminating moments like that don’t come often enough and when they do, we seize them. They give us a great excuse to reconnect with the team to share and smile a while, as we prepare to dive back in and work out how we’re going to raise funds in the most unbelievably challenging landscape there has ever been, so we can reforest Kenya.
In case you’re not aware, Kate very kindly narrated our documentary, #TreesAreTheKey and hand-painted an exclusive design for our organic cotton, vegan friendly Celebri-Tee-Shirt range.
I spent a decade volunteering for another charity before co-founding Word Forest and I learned a lot about the world of celebrity there too. It comprises a mix of perfectly ordinary, completely fascinating, horrendously complicated moments and is occasionally packed with jaw-dropping wonder, but you know what, we’re all the same, we’re all just humans and many try hard to do the right thing when they’re deliberately out of the limelight. Some of the folks we watch on the telly and the silver screen care far more than you realise about the importance of taking care of our world and its people. The minutiae matter and they’re happier being unsung.
Thank you Kate. I hope with all my heart your openness and extremely gracious words bring new eyes to our work, more corporate partnerships, members and donations too – we need them.
A final note to our supporters, if you’d like to do something amazing and powerful to help us today, click here to spread the word about what we do by sharing our articles on your social media platforms!
For now, I’m just happy smiling and ploughing through the challenges of today: tomorrow will bring a whole raft of new ones but I’m already looking forward to the next pocket of delightful surprise.
Tracey West and The Team
About the SAG-AFTRA Foundation
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to providing the most comprehensive, educational and state-of-the-art resources to the performance community. They believe that the contributions made to our culture by performing artists are not only valuable, but essential.
They have a plethora of videos with a remarkable line up of fascinating artists who are all excited to talk about their craft and also offer up a bit of insight into who they are as people too.
Click the following links to watch Eddie Redmayne talking about The Trial of the Chicago 7, Bryan Cranston discussing Your Honor and Clare Danes chatting about Homeland, amongst many other subjects.
