Throughout all that has happened in the past two years, I have drawn enormous strength from the fact that the majority of my friends and sponsors have stuck by me and continued to support my independent advocacy work helping families protect their children from being exposed to lead in their homes and environment.
A long-time partner of my advocacy (for more than three years now!) is my friend Tina. Tina is good friends with my friend Gayle. Gayle is my friend Rachel’s mother. Rachel and I have known each other for 33+ years and have become very close recently (especially now that environmentalism and sustainability are fundamental components of what each of us does for work!) — we went to Hingham High School together [I was actually in the same graduating class as her little sister!]
I met Tina when Gayle coordinated a “testing party” at Tina’s house (was it 2013? or 2014?) If I recall correctly, we tested everything in Tina’s kitchen, in fact several of the Pyrex measuring cups shown here on my site were hers! I was in New Hampshire speaking at a series of events hosted by the N.H. State Health Department and after the testing party, Tina offered that I stay with her instead of staying in hotel while I was there (to help save some $!) and a friendship was born!
While this very personal “six degrees of separation” story of how I connected with Tina might seem silly (or out of place), it’s really hugely representative of the community of people who have championed my work since shortly after my children were poisoned: family, friends, friends of friends, family of friends, people who, in support of my advocacy, let me sleep on their couches — or stay in their guest rooms often with no notice, even at our first in-person meeting, like Tina did! [note: I have had the privilege of staying in the homes of each of these amazing women – Rachel (California), and Gayle and Tina (both in New Hampshire!)]
One of the things keeping us together as friends and collaborators is that we are like-minded in our lifestyles and our work; Tina’s work is about empowering women to do home improvements on their own. The timing of bringing her on board as an advertising sponsor on my site could not be more appropriate in the wake of the “Me Too” movement — women everywhere are standing up for themselves and taking control of their lives and their work in new and powerful ways. The fun thing about Tina’s advocacy is how complementary it is to mine; if there’s a healthy homes topic I don’t have all the info on, she most certainly will have a blog post to cover it! [For example, here’s her post about air quality!]
Please click through to her site to learn more about who she is and what she does; she has an enormous amount of content and ideas there. Over the coming months Tina and I will be collaborating on blog posts, and I will be featuring some of her articles in my newsletters and on social media.
Thank you, Tina, for all you do!
Tamara
#LeadSafeMama
Check out “Home Tips For Women” here!
P.S. While on my advocacy journey, have I slept on your couch? Have I stayed in your guest room? Please leave a comment below on this post if I have! I meant to keep a journal of all the folks I have visited with over the years, but never managed to do that [I’m going to, moving forward though, I promise!]
Tamara, Thanks for the kind words & I’d totally forgotten about the day we met. Love how you showed just one example of women together, can truly change the world we live in … so let’s all get going!
Tamara, Nice tribute to Tina and the work she is accomplishing.