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Posted by Kevin Salwen on 04.15.2010Share

What a school day it has been for us; I just had to tell you about it. We began the morning in Rye, New York, where the Make a Difference Day coordinators at the Middle School asked us to speak to 700+ students about our project. The kids were engaged and eager to take on their own projects. And to make the morning even more fun, the event was coordinated by my amazing sister, Valerie.

From there, we headed to Lindenhurst High School, which had named The Power of Half as Lindy's Big Read, the first-ever community-wide program to read and act on the same book. The assistant principal, Linda Flannelly, told me that they looked through hundreds of titles until our book just jumped out at her in the local Barnes + Noble. The school walls were covered with "Hannah's Take" excerpts and dozens of photos of people posing with our book. Holy cow!

Then, just a few minutes ago, between talks, I sat down to read email. I learned that Lake Highland Prep School in Orlando, which already had chosen The Power of Half as their summer all-school read for the 800 high schoolers, now is expanding the read to middle school. That means another 350 students and 30 faculty members will be reading our book, for a total of more than 1,100. How amazing and flattering!

Thank you school administrators for your confidence in our family and our book.

Thanks to you 3 -- and to the entire Lindenhurst community. We've had the great fortune of visiting many cities in our book travels but this embrace was truly, deeply special On behalf of Hannah and our whole family, thank you!
Posted by Kevin at 5:13pm on 04.17.2010

Kevin and Hannah, I cannot express how much your visit yesterday meant to our entire Lindenhurst Community. Your generosity has resulted in a chain reaction that seems endless. Our whole community is immersed in message of The Power of Half. We wish you health and happiness as you go forward making a differnce in our world. Sincerely, Linda Flannelly Assistant Principal Lindenhurst High School
Posted by Linda at 7:12pm on 04.16.2010

Thank you for a very inspirational day!! It was a pleasure getting to know you and Hannah (and Alex)! I felt not only inspired but also pleased to have made some new friends. You are all so down-to-earth but yet have accomplished so much and for that I am proud to have met you! Thank you for joining us at Lindenhurst High School!
Posted by Tina at 12:46pm on 04.16.2010

Thank you so much for coming to Lindenhurst! It was great to meet you at the library tonight and I thank you for putting a voice to one of our most challenging problems...thinking beyond ourselves and our material world to understand that everyone is worthy and of equal value,desppite their geography, race bank account or circumstance and that love is the essential wealth we all need for a happy life and a great way to share the wealth is to share love through service and connection and giving of yourself to help others. I am very involved in "social, emotional learning" as the core of our education whereby empathy, compassion,understanding your emotions and perceptions and the emotions and percepitons of others is addressed and taught as central in schools and so that all else falls into place.I am working with a foundation called "love,laugh & learn" and it gears to teach what you have taught us! THANK YOU AGAIN! You are a beautiful and inspiring family!!!
Posted by norma at 11:14pm on 04.15.2010

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