Saturday 29 August 2015

Esther Day 2015

“I feel very lucky to know you – and as far as I have seen, to know you is literally to love you.”
– Esther Earl. 



 


August 3rd is a very special day for me, for the Deluminators and for many people around the world. Esther Day is a day that celebrates the life of Esther Earl who died from cancer when she was aged 16. Though she lived a short life, she lived a full one. Her family created the charity This Star Won’t Go Out after her death in 2010 in order to provide support and financial help to families and children going through the same thing they did. 

Their website gives an excellent explanation of Esther Day and what it means:


“Before her death, author and friend John Green told Esther that he and his brother Hank wanted to celebrate her birthday as long as there were vlogbrothers videos, and that the videos on that day could be about whatever she chose. After some reflection, Esther decided she wanted it to be a day to celebrate love for family friends. So since 2010, August 3rd or Esther Day has become a holiday that reminds us to verbalize our love for friends and family, the important people in our lives who we might not remember to say “I love you” to very often.” – This Star Won’t Go Out 


Last year we hosted Project Lily on Esther’s Day, giving out free flowers and postcards. This was such a fun experience and - I felt - was one of the most rewarding projects we hosted last year. So of course, when at the beginning of the year, we were discussing what projects and campaigns The Deluminators should run, Esther’s Day was put at the top of the list. 


A month before the event everyone was frantically getting ready. I was emailing Sydney Harbor Foreshore, Sean and Johnny were getting the postcards ready, Laura was making her beautiful bookmarks and everyone else was whipping out their origami skills to make pretty paper Lilies and Lotuses. We had fun craft days and thoroughly enjoyed making the flowers. We hit some hiccups when learning how to make them, but eventually we got the hang of it and they turned out really beautiful. We were aiming at making 200 flowers, but ended up with 300! This was an extraordinary effort by everyone, especially since not of us were origami connoisseurs. 


The excitement was palpable on the day of the event. We all arrived at Darling Harbour bright and early to set up. The weather was amazing, the flowers looked cool and we were ready to spread the love! 

We were a bit worried that the paper flowers wouldn’t attract much attention but our fears were completely unfounded. Everyone was so nice and loved the message behind the flowers, postcards and bookmarks. 

Before we knew it all the flowers were gone and we needed to make more! Soon we had a working production line and some kids even joined in. 


I would like to thank the following Deluminators for all your help in this event – you are awesome!  Sean, Chris, Tess, Laura, Skyler, Joanna, Riley and Johnny! 

All in all it was a day full and laughter and love. Just like Esther would have wanted. So remember – make sure that you tell someone that you love that you love them. 

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