Animator Gatherings - How You Can Support Them
Our Animators, both past and current, congregated last Thursday at our office for our first ever Animator Gathering! Elizabeth, Adam, and I tagged along to bask in their joy and good energy. These Animators are a huge chunk of what makes The Neighboring Movement a safe and fun place to be. They are the heart of us, and we are so proud of how intentional they have been with keeping in touch as they grow out of their CAN cohort.
Arionna (from cohort 5) and Maria (from cohort 7) went out of their way to organize the first Animator gathering! It was important to us as a staff to leave it to them. We have to live out our own principles of ABCD any chance we get, and in order to make these gatherings sustainable in the long term, we knew that the Animators should want the community and togetherness more than anything!
Ari says, “So for me, it took so long to figure out what my passion was. I had a conversation with a friend, and I finally realized that connecting people and community is my passion. That’s what I’m good at. Being able to do it in a way that’s fun and has a lightness in energy is important to me. I just wanted to create something fun for us.”
There was Animators from cohort 3 through our current cohort 8! This work is more than just what you see on a screen. It’s time, it’s emotional energy, it’s commitment. We love what we do, but more importantly the people completeing our programs love what we do. So much so that they stick around, volunteer, and create beautiful gatherings such as this.
If you want to support Animators like Arionna and Maria, consider becoming a monthly donor. What’s great about your donation is that you know exactly where it’s going. There is no middle man. Every dollar that’s donated gets put directly back into the programs. Community Animator Network is funded by people like you!
