Add Your Bone To The Million

There’s no better way to learn about something you only superficially understand than to volunteer to write about it! I had seen my friend Jane McPherson’s Facebook postings about the “One Million Bones Project” many times, enough to know that it was about genocide and that it involved literally making “bones.” Beyond that, I didn’t fully understand if it was about raising awareness, fundraising, taking action on an issue of international significance, or a combination of the three.

Fortunately, two representatives of Florida State University’s branch of the “One Million Bones Project” came to Journeys in Yoga today to participate in the Journeys donation class that benefits the project. They covered in five minutes what I had failed to understand over the past five months. A visit to the One Million Bones website answered my other questions.

The Million Bones Project is about genocide. It is a “collaborative art installation designed to recognize the millions of victims and survivors who have been killed or displaced by ongoing genocides and humanitarian crises in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Burma.”*

In addition to raising awareness, there is a fundraising component. In conjunction with “Students Rebuild,” every bone made as part of this collaboration will result in generating $1 toward the work of CARE in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This awareness-building and fundraising has a physical manifestation in the “bones” that are made by participants all over the nation

Here in Tallahassee, the local project has already created over 10,000 bones and therefore raised over $10,000.  The installation of 6500 bones in Bloxham Park last April made a strong statement:

Tallahassee’s Bloxham Park Installation April 2012

The local One Million Bones group plans future installations at Florida State University as well as 621 Gallery during this academic year.

Ultimately, the national goal is to cover the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with one million handmade bones in 2013.

A Preview Installation in Albuquerque, NM

You may be asking, “why go to all the trouble to shape some clay or plaster into a hipbone or rib (or other bone) replica?” I don’t know about you, but I learn better and am more invested in things I have seen and touched than things I have only heard. If that’s true for me as an adult, I can only imagine that it is even more true for a child or young person.

Students at Tallahassee’s Palmer-Munroe Teen Center make bones for the One Million Bones project.

I am happy to share the news that Journeys in Yoga is donating 100% of the proceeds from its Sunday noon donation classes through the end of October to this project! All levels of yoga are welcomed, and the donation amount is entirely up to you. In addition, Journeys will offer several opportunities in September to make bones before or after a yoga class.

For information about the September 16 bone-making and yoga event at Journeys, click here. (Bone-making is free. Please contact Journeys for class fee information.)

For information about the September 18 bone-making and yoga event at Journeys, click here. (Bone-making is free. Please contact Journeys for class fee information.)

Keep up with the Journeys/One Million Bones partnership schedule via this link.

Follow this sign to do some good for yourself AND for others!

If you have other questions about the One Million Bones project, here are some resources:

The Florida One Million Bones website is http://www.onemillionbones.org/rtwflorida/.

The national One Million Bones website is www.onemillionbones.org.

The website for Students Rebuild, which focuses on engaging young people, is www.studentsrebuild.org.

You can “like” the One Million Bones/Florida Facebook page here.

You can make your own bone at a Tallahassee First Friday! Information on that is here.

If you want to have a bone made in your name or the name of someone you care about, click here. (These bones will be part of the National Mall display. They are biodegradable and will be filled with flower seeds afterwards and planted around the country to symbolize hope and new life.*)

You can learn more about the local One Million Bones principal organizer, Jane McPherson, here.

You can watch a video about the project here:

Thank you, Journeys, for your generosity not only to causes in our town but to the worldwide community!

*Source: www.onemillionbones.org

Paula Kiger

Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.