Dear Vonnegutians,
As we temporarily close our doors, let’s take a moment to recap our year to date. Since January 1, 2020, 646 of you welcomed us into your schools, prisons, community clubs, libraries, etc. Nearly 400,000 of you visited us here at our website! Another 1,213 of you stopped by in January and February when we were offering 6 tours a day! We shared suicide prevention training with more than 50 of you, and you keep asking for more. Arthur Murray Dance Studio taught 20 guests new dance steps at our first-ever Valentine’s Day Party. We hosted author Dave Eggers as we start our Youth Writing Program, and 210 of you had the opportunity to meet him. We’ve had an amazing year so far, and we are not stopping now. We are moving full-steam ahead, creating online content for you and planning our first Kentucky Derby Party and Fourth of July events, Freedom to Read Week, VonnegutFest, and more. What’s more, a donor from Danville, Indiana, is donating $500 if it is matched by the end of the day Friday, March 20th. His name is Tom, and you’ll learn more about him in our next newsletter. Would you consider donating any amount to help us reach our total goal of $500 by Friday at 5 pm? Donate here!
We exist to celebrate the legacy of Kurt Vonnegut and support free expression and common decency. Hand washing is common decency. Of course, Kurt had something to say about hand washing (he was so brilliant):
“My hero is Ignaz Semmelweis . . . But all that dying went on and on and Semmelweis, having far less sense about how to get along with others in this world than you and I would have, kept on asking his colleagues to wash their hands. They at last agreed to do this in a spirit of lampoonery, of satire, of scorn. How they must have lathered and lathered and scrubbed and scrubbed and cleaned under their fingernails. The dying stopped – imagine that! The dying stopped. He saved all those lives.” Read more here.
Although our building is closed, our organization is still open for business. So stay in touch with us, Vonnegutians, through our social media channels, email, and phone, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed of all things Vonnegut. So it goes!
