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Meet Willamena
Our words have power! Join Willamena Picklepants as she encounters playground bullies who use words to hurt. How will Willamena respond? Does kindness matter? Can her words really make a difference?​
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While Willamena Picklepants is obviously a fictional character, hurtful words and exclusion, unfortunately, are not fictional. Willamena's character was created to honor those who may be feeling alone, teased, singled out, sized up, or left out. While we can never control others whose aim is to hurt, we can control our response. Let's join Willamena in making positive choices with our words. Kindness really does count!
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the AUTHOR
About: Hi! I'm Lauri, mom to four L's and wife to a T (we're trying to change his name to Larry so he fits with the 'L' theme, but he resists.) We keep busier than bees jumping between the kids' schools, doing homework, school activities, and keeping up with laundry!
Why the Willamena story? As a mom of four kids who inevitably disagree (often!), Willamena Picklepants originated over a dinnertime discussion about the piercing power of words and how people - both children and adults - can misuse words as weapons to wound hearts. We are taught that 'sticks and stones' break bones, but truly it is words that do the most damage to our souls. Willamena gets to choose to repay hurt with more hurt or be a leader and speak kind words to those who have hurt her. In light of the social media age we're now living in, everything that is written is permanent. Now, more than ever, we must remind our children - and each other - of the lasting impact words can and do have.
Lauri: Born and raised on a farm in rural Nebraska (where the nearest town has only one stop-light!), Lauri earned her BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and received her Master’s Degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Prior to starting her family, Lauri served as a Human Resources Professional working with Fortune 500 Companies. Lauri later served as a Sales Trainer and Consultant for Integrity Systems, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, under the direction of founder and author Ron Willingham, whom she considers a mentor and hero. He taught her the incredible power of words—both spoken and unspoken.
Lauri is forever grateful for the gift of inclusiveness through family and the miracle of adoption. She has a heart for foster families and children of divorce, loves all things home improvement, dislikes grocery shopping and cooking (but does it anyway!), and is most passionate about encouraging others through written words.
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hat if an empty chair could change everything? What if the school lunchroom was a place where every child was part of 'the' group - not 'a' group? What if there were no more worries about saved seats or feeling excluded at lunch? What if there were an empty seat -- an open, inviting, empty seat between friends, where anyone was welcomed and encouraged to sit in the lunchroom -- in all of our schools? What if we fostered an environment of extending ourselves -- reaching out, rather than staying within our own circle?
An Empty Chair between friends.
An open conversation.
An open heart.
The Empty Chair Movement.
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The Empty Chair Movement
“I don't worry about not having a friend to sit with at lunch anymore. The Empty Chair Movement has helped me feel included - like I finally belong.”
- 6th Grader
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Hi mamas and papas!
There is great risk in putting one’s work in print for the world to critique -– particularly when I deeply believe in this subject matter and how desperately our world needs to empower children with choices of kindness. But there is even greater risk in publicizing one’s work when it involves the scrutiny of other moms and dads (especially moms – we can be pretty harsh with each other, can’t we?)