World Moms Bloggers, Dee Harlow, Kyla P’an, Jennifer Burden and Nicole Melancon met up for the first time in Washington, DC for a UN Foundation Summit for Shot@Life!
What better way for World Moms Blog writers to meet up than at a UN Foundation Volunteer Summit?
Recently, I headed to Washington, DC by invitation from the UN Foundation to speak at a summit to help fire start a grass-roots movement across the United States in support of their Shot@Life campaign. This campaign supports vaccinations to save the lives of children in developing nations.
The foundation gave me the opportunity to invite a few fellow Americans who I thought would be interested in championing the Shot@Life cause. World Moms Blog editors, Kyla P’an in Massachusetts, USA, who had done previous service work in India, and Nicole Melancon in Minnesota, USA, who had raised money to build a school in Nepal singlehandedly, answered the call. And I’m so glad they did!
What do you say to women that you’ve been “working” with for nearly a year and who you are just meeting for the first time?
I remembered once thinking that having “online” friends was weird and shady, and here I was about to meet some fantastic moms whom I met online!
I have been virtually volunteering with these inspiring and well-traveled moms to run an international mothers community, and now came the day that I got to meet not just two, but three World Moms Bloggers, as Dee Harlow was able to catch up with us, too!
(Dee is in language training in Washington, DC for her next international adventure in Laos later this year.)
I truly think meeting these ladies will be a day that I will talk about to my grandkids (and if I don’t have grandkids, then any kid who will want to hear the old stories of a rambling old lady one day!). I was a bit run down upon arrival to the hotel. Ok. That was probably an understatement – I need to add more rest into my life.
So, here’s what I remember, two bubbly blond women nearly as excited to meet me as I was to meet them in the lobby. It was just so exciting! I instantly knew it was them from seeing their pictures online. I remember telling Nicole, “I don’t recognize you without the mountain behind you!” (as in her Gravatar picture). And, they said, “We weren’t expecting you to be so tall!”
We had minutes for me to check in and then for us to head to the lounge to meet the Executive Director, Peg Willingham, of Shot@Life for our scheduled interview with her. (By the way, I learned that Kyla is an impressive interviewer!)
Here we are interviewing Peg minutes after meeting!:
World Moms Bloggers, Jennifer Burden, Nicole Melancon and Kyla P’an interview Peg Willingham, Executive Director of Shot@Life, in Washington, D.C.
I felt nauseous shortly after the interview, and can you believe it – I wasn’t able to go out to dinner with them that night! I was so disappointed. But, I rested and rallied to meet them in the hotel bar later that night when Dee was coming in to meet up with us.
What a fun night! We talked about everything from Nepal, to Kyla’s editing jobs, to Dee’s service work in Uzbekistan. And they wanted to hear about how I started the blog and how I manage to run it with small children. I told them the story, as I sipped chamomile tea for my stomach, wishing I had a nice glass of wine to celebrate this special occasion.
These women get me. And I get them. We, as well as the many World Moms Blog writers, have made a bond around World Moms Blog and our common interests of motherhood, culture, travel and social good.
Time flies quick. We said goodbye to Dee and good luck to her in Laos. We will look forward to and hear about her experiences in Asia in her future World Moms Blog posts and read them this time “knowing” her.
As we finished up, I started feeling a bit sick again, and the ladies got to ride the elevator with me sitting on the floor. Kyla got me a bag just in case. Yep. It was like we were coming home from a college party, and I had drank too much. Ugh!! Why did I have to feel sick for this special time??!!
The next day Nicole and Kyla experienced my first speaking opportunity as the founder of World Moms Blog. World Moms Blog history in the making!
While jumping from meeting room to meeting room, I then met some very motivated, enthusiastic women and learned more about Kyla and Nicole along the way.
And we were all getting very excited that we were all there representing World Moms Blog and volunteering at the very beginning of the Shot@Life movement – it’s going to be big, people! Shot@Life will greatly impact the lives of global children.
Before I knew it, the summit was over. Like a flash.
Who was it that said that we should plan a meet up for World Moms Blog writers? I think it was our writer, Susie Newday in Israel. Susie, I think you’re on to something!
I have so much more to say, so many more questions to ask and so much time that I want to spend listening to our talented global writers and learning from them. To all the World Moms Blog writers out there – I’m so glad that you are a part of my life! And, to Kyla, Nicole and Dee – what a great memory! Here’s to our paths crossing on this great big planet again!
This is the first of several blog posts about our trip to Washington, DC to highlight the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign, which supports saving the lives of children in developing nations through vaccinations.
Have you ever met an online friend in person before? How did it go? What did you feel?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog. Jennifer Burden is the founder and an editor of World Moms Blog. She can be reached at worldmomsblog@gmail.com or on Twitter @WorldMomsBlog and @JenniferBurden.
Photo credits to the author.
Jennifer Burden
Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network currently writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors, is a volunteer effort and was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 and 2013." Also in 2013, World Moms Blog was called a "must read" by The New York Times Motherlode, and was recommended by The Times of India. Jennifer is the stay-at-home mother to two young girls and an advocate for ONE Girls and Women. She was also a member of a delegation to Uganda to view UNICEF's family health programs with Shot@Life in 2012 and a UN Foundation "Global Influencer Fellow" in 2013. In 2014 she was a UN Foundation "Social Media Fellow", attended the Americares Airlift to Nicaragua on behalf of Cognizant, participated in the first AYA Summit and was invited by the World Bank to Washington, DC to report on their global Civil Society Meetings. Jennifer also co-created the #Moms4MDGs twitter campaign that extended from July 2013 to March 2014 to raise awareness on all 8 of the UN's Millennium Development Goals to help eradicate extreme poverty. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation's Shot@Life and The Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists." Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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What a lovely picture of all of you!!
Reading this, Jen, makes WMB seem so much more real to me, if you know what I mean. It’s not just a blog, it’s a movement, a journey. Words are not enough to describe how excited I am for you and WMB moving forward. And I’m so proud to be part of this.
We need to meet you, too, our editor from Malaysia!! Yes, I totally know what you mean “makes WMB seem so much more real to me.” I’m soooo glad that you’re part of this, Alison!!
Jen 🙂
This is amazing. What a memorable and beautiful thing to happen. I was waiting to read all about your meeting. Yes, I agree with Susie. We should plan a meet-up. I do not know how the logistics is going to work out. But I am sure it is going to be some history in the making.
Looking forward to hear more of Peg’s interview too.
WMB is getting more and more exciting. And I am so happy and proud to be a part of such a motivated and interesting community.
And, you, too, our Social Media Coordinator in India!! Can’t wait to meet you all one day!
Kyla is going to post the details on what we learned about Shot@Life from the interview — it was fantastic getting to interview Peg Willingham!
I’m excited about World Moms Blog over here, too!!!
Jen 🙂
What a beautiful picture!
As a sit here, time after time reading your blogs, I can’t help thinking about how much you have grown since we met. I find myself looking forward to each new blog from you. And
I miss our little pow-wows (LOL)! Because, even then, you knew you were meant to do something greater than sitting in a little cubical, with little or no interaction from the “outside” world.
I knew you would find your “nitch”…..:)
You are informative, motivating and inspiring, a true Roll Model !
Looking forward to all your WMB’s….<3
Jeanette 🙂
Jeannette!!!
Thank you for always reading. 🙂 You’ve known me for so long! I miss our pow-wows, too. I’m so happy that everyone can be a part of what we’re doing through reading the blog!!
Thank you so much for all of your kind words!!! 🙂
Jen 🙂
Jen: What a fantastic post! I love how it reflects on the fact that we are not just online blogging pals but much more. We are part of a global voice of mothers! Working together on this blog and getting to know everyone has been an amazing experience for me. Getting to meet you, Dee and Kyla in DC was amazing! It felt like we had known each other for years and was so much fun. I can’t wait to see where the future brings WMB and my hope is that we can continue meeting and perhaps meet even more of our writers down the road. As for you being tired, you forgot to mention that you were up the entire night before the summit with your young daughter! I am amazed how much you do given how busy you are with your little ones! You are an inspiration!
Nicole,
I read this affirmation once that said, “I have enough energy to do all the things I need to do to get me through my day.” I’ve tried to replace that for “I’m so tired!” It seems to help!
Once again, I’m soooo glad we met and that you, and all the World Moms Blogger, are a part of this great community!!
Jen 🙂
Reblogged this on thirdeyemom and commented:
Hello Readers! Here is a wonderful post written by World Mom’s Blog founder Jennifer Burden about what it was like to meet WMB fellow rights and come together for the UN Foundation Summit on Shot@Life. Please read!
Thank you so much!!!
Jen 🙂
great idea Nicole! I’m going to do the same on Growing Muses.
Sounds like an amazing experience, Jen!
Kathy
Thanks, Kathy — it really was! I hope things are going well for you and your partner in England!
Jen 🙂
It was fantastic to meet all of you and thank you for staying out ‘late’ so I could join you! I have to tell you that despite Jen feeling ill, she still radiated boundless energy and enthusiasm for WMB and the Shot@Life project, and so did Kyla and Nicole. It was a pleasure and an inspiration to come face to face with such wonderful women! I can totally envision a WMB summit one day where we all will have an opportunity to meet and bond and achieve great things together!
Dee!! I’m sooo glad you met us. What a night!!!
Thanks for everything you wrote here. It is all so sweet.
Yes, World Moms Blog Summit — let’s dream big!!
Jen 🙂
What a wonderful experience for you guys! I cant wait to hear more about it. I definitely second the motion on a WMB summit – that would be so much fun! 🙂
Maman Aya,
Yes!! It was really a lot of fun — I so wish we can do something to get more of the WMB writers all together. I still have to meet you!!!
Jen 🙂
I agree with Alison, it’s a beautiful picture of you ladies! I imagine it must be quite surreal meeting for the first time. Yet nothing bonds women faster than being moms 😉 I’m so thankful that Jennifer gave me this opportunity to join WMB. Though I’ve been a silent reader most of the time, I’m really excited about the growth right here at WMB! It’s a blessing being a part of this community. Looking forward to the day when we can finally all meet!
Jen, this is a great post and a great reminder about how exciting it was to meet and then also to attend the summit together. Shot@Life is a great fit for the Social Good aspect of WMB. Meeting you three was the highlight of my time in DC. I can’t imagine how cool it would be to get to meet more of the amazing community of WMBers. Let’s have a World Moms Blog summit for sure!!
Love it! Love that you met! Love that it was at this summit! Go moms of World Moms Blog! You gals are particularly inspiring 🙂