Different Healing Field Idea for the New Year

The New Year is almost here and I’m full of exciting Healing Field ideas for 2010 and even beyond.

As many of you know, Healing Field started out as as a way to commemorate the lives of those lost to us on September 11, 2001.  Since the very first Healing Field display in 2002, hundreds of communities across America have hosted a Healing Field or Fields of Honor to raise money and awareness for a growing array of causes.

Healing Field, Pentagon Memorial, 9/11/2008. Photo by "The U.S. Army."

These special displays of fields of American flags have helped to honor the sacrifice of our service men and women, raise awareness for the tragedy of child abuse or domestic violence, honor veterans past and present, raise awareness for heart disease and cancer and more.

Last year the Healing Field team and I were working hard to put together numerous Healing Fields across our nation.  One special Healing Field idea that I wanted to execute was a field that would benefit the poor and the hungry in Salt Lake County.  To accomplish this event we started working with Utah Road Home, another non-profit organization that assists our homeless neighbors in Salt Lake County, Utah.

This particular Healing Field idea includes a “one-stop donation hub.”  A location, somewhere in downtown Salt Lake City, where fellow citizens would be able to drop off their donations such as: clothing, food, hygiene products and toys.  Also, the idea included the availability of numerous United States flags for the purpose of sponsorship.  The proceeds and donations, as a result of this event, would have gone to the Road Home as well as the Utah Food Bank, another non-profit organization that is dedicated to addressing to unmet needs of our low-income neighbors in Utah.

Also, I imagined the location being a great “visual landmark” in the downtown area of Salt Lake City, distracting and attracting the crowds of people shopping around for Christmas gifts for their friends and families.

The idea of seeing Salt Lake City and other cities and states across our nation taking on an event like the one described above is another vision that is “breath taking” to me.  Fortunately, in this “season of giving,” the generosity of many people is not just experienced in the “retail world,” it is also a very much experienced in the “charitable world.”

Despite my disappointment that this particular field fell through for this year, I’m committed to move forward in putting up a Healing Field, specifically benefiting our poor and hungry neighbors, next year or in those years following 2010.

I find determination in the words, pronounced by one of our Presidents, many years ago: “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”  Inspirational, to say the very least.