Please note we are doing another challenge for Purple Day including two book giveaways of When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead and The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton. Click on the link or the button to read our current challenge. Spread the word and use our button.
Bookscoops is thrilled to announce that our blue theme is going purple this week!!!! My sister, Holly, and I are excited to host a Purple Day challenge. I recently learned about Purple Day, an international day to promote epilepsy awareness held on March 26th. Purple Day was started by a 9 year old girl in Canada named Cassidy Megan. Cassidy wanted to let other people with epilepsy, especially children, know that they are not alone. My daughter was very excited to learn that other children have epilepsy and our whole family plans to wear purple that day. We even went out and picked out a purple shirt for Dad. Holly and I decided to host a Purple Day challenge on our blog to join in Cassidy’s efforts to increase epilepsy awareness world wide.
Why is Bookscoops going Purple for Epilepsy?
My oldest daughter was diagnosed almost 5 months ago with epilepsy. She has Generalized Seizure Disorder and experiences Tonic-Clonic Seizures, formerly known as Grand Mal. This has been a painful journey as I have watched my daughter struggle with this disorder. She is very bright and full of potential. Epilepsy is only part of her as a human being as she loves to read, spend time with friends, swim and play violin. One of my biggest frustrations is the lack of information and misconceptions surrounding this disorder and particularly the lack of funding it receives. I feel that one of the best ways to help her deal with this is to raise awareness. Her life with epilepsy can be made easier and safer as more people know about this common disorder and learn how to respond with appropriate first aid.
Cari's Daughter in Purple - Photo by Jessie Lynne Photography click on photo for current giveaway
In addition, we wanted to raise awareness about epilepsy because it is the second most common reason people see a neurologist behind migraine. Epilepsy affects 50 million people world wide and about 3 million people living in the United States have epilepsy. More people have this condition than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease combined. Unfortunately, a lot of myths and false ideas are still being perpetuated about epilepsy (such as it is a mental condition or that epilepsy is contagious). Some of these misconceptions have caused many people to become isolated and live in fear and shame that someone will find out about their condition and many people have faced discrimination based on their medical diagnosis.
Who Can Participate and How to Participate?
There are number of ways to participate in our first annual Purple Day Challenge and because we love to promote literacy we are combining both reading and Purple Day starting on March 21st and ending on March 31st. While our blog focuses on children and adolescent literature we are inviting anyone to go purple!!!! So that means any person, book blogger or blogger who wants to promote Purple Day may participate. To make this easy on you (and us) choose any or all of the following.
- Post the Purple Day Button on your blog starting on Sunday March 21st through Saturday March 27th and write a post promoting Purple Day. Please note we have received permission to use the Purple Day logo as part of this challenge. If you choose this option you must read and agree to the copyright notice on the Purple Day website by using the logo you are stating that you have read and agree to their terms of use. Two sizes of buttons are at the bottom of this post.
- Read a book about epilepsy and post a review. For a list of books for children go to Epilepsy.Com.
- Read a book by or about a famous person with epilepsy and post a review. Cari’s daughter’s favorite so far is The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story Behind Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors, which also is a Cybils winner for 2009. Some names you might know are Harriet Tubman, Alfred Nobel and Charles Dickens and more recently actor Danny Glover, football player Alan Faneca and track star, Florence Griffin Joyner known as Flo Jo. For a more complete list visit The Epilepsy Foundation or if you’re a fan of Wikipedia see the List of Famous people with Epilepsy, which to be honest seems to be the best documented list we’ve found so far.
- Read a book that promotes self-confidence and acceptance in children and post a review. Suggested books so far with a very appropriate title, Purplicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann and Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann, illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein.
- If you or a family has dealt with epilepsy write a post sharing your experience.
- Wear purple on March 26th and tell people why you are wearing purple.
- Click on the link to watch the 60 Minute Special on Epilepsy and write about what the things that you learned you in a blog post, or if you don’t have a blog put it in the comments for this post.
- Have an idea not listed above submit it and we’ll give you another entry. Cari’s niece is making 600+ purple ribbons for her school. So if you think of something put a comment in the comments below.
For every entry we receive, Cari will donate 25¢ per entry for a total of fifty dollars to a non-profit organization that works towards epilepsy awareness and/or research and Holly will match Cari’s donation. Multiple entries are possible. One entry equals doing one of the seven items listed above.
Our Goals for this Challenge
Our goal is three-fold 1) to promote Purple Day and raise epilepsy awareness, 2) to dispel myths surrounding epilepsy and 3) to compile a more comprehensive list of books that portray epilepsy and/or people with epilepsy accurately, especially for children. Finally we do hope to raise some money for epilepsy awareness.
How to Enter and When Does it End?
Sign-up in the comments below telling us who you are and what you are planning on doing to participate. Make sure you leave a link to your blog. If you post about this challenge please leave us a link in the comments to your post and we will put together a list of everyone who participated with links to their blog posts as the week progresses. The Purple Day mini-challenge begins on March 21st and ends March 31st, midnight MST.
Rewards for this Challenge:
We would love to offer prizes, but at this point we don’t have anything to offer except the good feeling that you are helping other people become aware of a disorder that affects millions of people world wide. We might consider it for future years. However, remember Cari is willing to donate .25¢ up to a total of fifty dollars and Holly will match her donation to a non-profit organization that works towards epilepsy awareness and/or research for each person who commits to participate by doing any of the 8 options above. See above for details of how to enter and participate.
Non-profit Groups that promote Epilepsy Awareness, Education and Fund Research
Consider donating to one of the groups below:
Purple Day – Founded by nine-year old Cassidy Megan to promote global epilepsy awareness.
CURE Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy – raises money for epilepsy research.
Epilepsy Foundation an organization dedicated to advocacy, education and research.
Epilepsy Association of Utah – The group in Cari’s state dedicated to educating the public and supporting persons and their families with epilepsy.
Anita Kaufman Foundation – Dedicated to educating the public to not fear epilepsy.
Purple Day Button
We have provided two sizes for the button. If you would like to use the Purple Day Button you must read and agree to the copyright notice on the Purple Day website by using the logo you are stating that you have read and agree to their terms of use.
I have posted the button and about Purple Day on my blog. Also, I think your link for the 60 minute video is broken. I couldn’t get it to work and neither could Jacob.
Jessica – Thank you for posting the button! and I fixed the link so it should work now.
Hey there. Jessica referred me to your site because she saw my blog about purple day. I was just reading your blog and I think it is wonderful what you are doing! Such a great way to get the message across. My oldest daughter was Diagnosed with Epilepsy in December after having 3 Tonic Clonic Seizures in One day. They immediately put her on a seizure medication after the third one. They sent us to Primary Childrens where she was diagnosed. We have read a lot about it. There are some neat things out there to help people learn about it. I have chosen to become a support group leader in my town. We are opening up new avenues for those in this area that do not have it. It is so neat to get involved. I live in Northern Utah. If you live in Utah please let me know. I have some great information on a Summer camp that happens every year for children with Epilepsy. Have a fabulous day!! Hope to see a LOT OF PURPLE on Friday!
My daughter is 8 years old. Thanks for stopping by the blog 🙂 Yes I am the one starting the group up north. I am excited about it. I haven’t spoken to Richard for a few weeks. I need to get that going again. WE are looking at starting in May (I hope). I would love to get together with you sometime. 🙂 Thanks again! Have an awesome day
Cynthia – Thanks stopping by our blog. Good luck with starting in May and way to go to advocate for our children!
Cari, this is such a wonderful thing you’re doing. I would be thrilled to participate and hopefully I can do several of the challenges. I would definitely be willing to do an interview or anything else you’d like that I can fit into my schedule. I’ll try to get a post up about your challenge today.
Kim! I would love it if you could participate in any of the challenge this week. So glad you stopped by. I’ll send you some interview questions soon.
I’ll post tomorrow, first thing, about my own epileptic childhood, and how it continues to be part of my life! I’ll also see if I can dig up the poem I wrote about it in high school!
Purple isn’t a color that I usually wear, but today I went and bought a purple t-shirt so I can wear it on the 26th for epilepsy awareness. 🙂
I don’t have a blog, but I’m going to post a link to this page on my facebook wall.
Oh, I wished I knew about this sooner. I’m also a book blogger and parent of a 7 yr. old daughter with Epilepsy so I know exactly how you feel. I haven’t been spending to much time on my blog recently (you know, real life gets in the way) but will try to at least mention this. Thanks!
Hi, Cari,
I shared your challenge on my Facebook and Twitter pages. Thanks so much for mentioning my book Little Skink’s Tail as a book that promotes self-confidence and acceptance in children. I’ll be wearing purple tomorrow! Little Skink might have to find something purple to wrap around her tail!
Great challenge! We’ve done (or will do) the following three items:
(1) Post the Purple Day Button on your blog and write a post promoting Purple Day.
(2) If you or a family has dealt with epilepsy write a post sharing your experience.
[As you know, my entire BLOG is dedicated to dealing with my 2 year-old’s epilepsy, among other symptoms, so I think we’ve got this covered. 🙂 ]
(3) Wear purple on March 26th and tell people why you are wearing purple.
Cynthia – I will posting my review of Becky the Brave, A Story About Epilepsy by Laurie Lears on my blog for your mini-challenge!! Thanks for helping spread Epilepsy awareness.
Hey Cari! I posted about this today on my blog and posted the button in my sidebar. Tomorrow I’ll be posting a review of Little Skinks Tail.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve had epilesy for 40 years. great to spread the word. will put the button up on my blog!
For my niece and others like her, On March 26, I’m wearing PURPLE to support
EPILEPSY AWARENESS to help spread the word. To learn more about her go to http://bookscoops.com/ Epilepsy affects 50 million people world wide and about 3 million people living in the United States have epilepsy. More people have this condition than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease combined.
I have a brother that has had epilpesy for as long as I can remember. I wish I had know about things like this a long time ago and I would have been more involved with things like this. I don’t think I have anything purple to wear but I’ll be posting the button on facebook as my profile image. Thanks again for the reminder.
Jaron
Laurel Synder – I’d love to see a poem from your childhood. Can’t wait to check out your post.
Cynthia W – I appreciate your willingness to go and buy purple even if it’s not a color you normally wear. I means a lot. We had to buy a shirt for dad.
Stephanie – Greetings to a fellow book blogger with a child with epilepsy. I found out about Purple Day a little over two weeks ago, so it’s still pretty new to me. Whatever you are able to do would be great and am looking forward to your review of Becky the Brave!
I can’t do much about this one, but I posted the button and linked back here to spread the word!
I can wear purple, but I probably won’t be leaving the house…. 😀
I just posted about our experience with epilepsy. http://goodcleanreads.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-epilepsy-story.html
Everyone in my family is wearing purple or at least a ribbon. (My husband and two boys don’t have purple shirts :)) I asked my kids if they would be interested in taking ribbons to the kids in their classes and telling them a little about their brother and epilepsy. They were very excited and I’m anxious to hear how it went once they get home from school.
Today, as part of read week for my kids at school, they were supposed to wear pajamas to school. When we discussed wearing purple earlier in the week, we did not put two and two together about purple and pajamas. This morning my sweetie helped them get off and I slept in with our new little guy. When I woke up I suddenly thought, “Oh, no! Did they remember purple?”
I called my husband at work and he reassured me that they remembered about wearing purple, but told me I needed to for sure take a picture when they got home from school, because it was pretty hilarious. When the boys walked in after school, it was really all I could do to not laugh. My 9 year old was wearing light blue footed pajamas with a pair of purple and orange Utah Jazz pajama pants over the top. My 6yo was wearing plaid navy blue and green pajama bottoms with a faded navy blue pj top that apparently looks purple to more than one person in my family. I asked them if they told anyone why they were wearing purple today, and they both said no. Most of the time, my kids are not big talkers, so that wasn’t a big surprise. I just really wonder what all those teachers were thinking? LOL!
I recently commented to someone that some days I wish I could put a sign on my children that I tried to convince them to wear something different just so that they know I really do care. But, with a newborn, apparently today, sleep was more important. Anyway, I’m proud that my children chose to wear purple today. I wore purple also! And thank goodness buzz lightyear’s wings have purple on them so even my toddler had purple on too!
Wow! I’m a little late, but I’ll wear purple tomorrow. What a cute picture of your daughter.
Natasha Maw – Thank you for posting about Purple Day and I look forward to reading your review of Little Skink’s Tail, it is a popular one at our house.
Barbara on the Bookcase – Thanks for posting the button. Glad you stopped by and it is amazing to me how the more I talk about epilepsy the more people I meet with the it.
Kelson – Thank you for wearing purple and putting the information on facebook. We, my family and I appreciate it.
Jaron – Thank you for stopping by and putting some information on facebook. I wish your brother had had this type of day when you guys were growing up. I hope you shared it with him. Next year, if you don’t have purple I can get you some ribbons.
Britt, Book Habitue – My jaw dropped when I saw you post here, with your new little one and all this week I thought for sure you might miss out and understandably so. Thanks for doing what you can.
Kim – I can’t wait to hear how your kids’ experience was at school. That is so awesome that they took ribbons to school and shared about their little brother.
Hollybookscoops – That is hilarious. I can’t wait to see the picture. I am sometimes the same way about the clothes my children choose to wear, but sometimes it’s good to let them express themselves. Glad to know you guys all wore purple.
Sharon – That’s okay, whatever you can do would be great. I think my daughter’s pretty cute too.
My family all wore purple today. Jacob wore a purple tie, since he doesn’t have a purple shirt or any other purple clothes. Thank goodness lavendar was one of our wedding colors or he wouldn’t have had the tie. Me and my little one wore purple too, and Jacob and I made sure people understood why we wore purple. I have also been posting on facebook all week about Purple Day also along with some links.
I wore purple on March 26 to support my grand-daughter and to encourage EPILEPSY AWARENESS to help spread the word. I also printed the Supporting Epilepsy Around the World book mark and wore it on my jacket all day at work. I also did a post and link on my Facebook page. Ben helped me. He needs credit for his 5 or 6 posts about her on his Facebook page. He borrowed and wore a purple T shirt from Tynan as Tynan’s high school has purple as one of its colors. I really had to scrounge and finally wore a jacket to a dress that is purple. I had gotten rid of the one purple shirt I owned and couldn’t even find a purple ribbon. Several of my coworkers track me on my Facebook page and commented to me at work on the purple. One of the coworkers had a stress related seizure at work 2 years ago. She had had some childhood seizures also.
And for my daughters who wonder what their teacher’s think about what their children wear to school, I can identify with that becaue of what their brothers sometimes insisted on wearing to school.
Cari- Thank you so very much for posting all of this on your blog. You are amazing! I wish you could have been here in DC to see the 5000 walkers for epilepsy today or Sen. Hatch and Rep Chaffetz office all wearing purple yesterday! Thank you for passing this awareness along. You are an amazing! Thank you for all of your support of the EAU and me. Love, Kris
Cari, I wore purple on the 26th and had a few conversations about epilepsy with neighbors and friends that saw my facebook status. It affects more people than many of us realize. My husband was disappointed he couldn’t wear purple scrubs to work, but we did make purple ribbons to wear all day as well. We ended the day by reading Little Skink’s Tail together. My boys still love that book!
*Love* finding this on a book blog! I’m an adult with intractable epilepsy. My brother and I have just taken over a bookshop/cafe. Busily planning Purple Day activities now 🙂
PS hope to see another Purple Day book bloggers challenge for 2011!
I have one in the works.
Great! I just sent the link of *this* page around book networks on Twitter – been further promoted by a few bookshops and book bloggers there. Nice to spread the info beyond the usual epilepsy/disability/community networks!
This will be the first year for my daughter MyKaela and I to be wearing PURPLE. MyKaela is 13yrs old and had her first seizure Christmas day 2009. It wasn’t until April 2010 she was diagnosed with Generalized Seizure Disorder and she experiences Tonic-Clonic seizures. In the beginning she was concerned about taking her medicine in front of the other children bc she didn’t want anyone to make fun of her but now I show her sites like this and she seems to become more aware that she isen’t the only one. I thank you for sharing your site with us. We made 200 purple ribbons last month and have been handing them out at the hair salon where I work in hopes to raise awareness. I pray every day for a cure! God bless us all~