Remember how the United States is holding children, separated from their families, in cages at the border for the crime of asking for legal asylum? Yeah, we haven’t forgotten either. Sign up to volunteer remotely with Every Last One, an organization that helps advocate for the children and is guiding them out of detention and into the arms of their families when possible, or screened sponsors when not. Submit a screenshot of your completed volunteer form. (On your honor, follow through!)
No camp experience would be complete without a group sunrise or sunset picture with your besties, and Camp GISH is no different. Take a virtual “team photo” with each of you at sunrise or sunset, then collage them so that you’re all in the same picture virtually.
Boris Johnson is looking for a spokesperson, and while I think I’m the natural candidate for the job I know that there are a lot of other qualified candidates out of work as well. Create a statement of suitability for your pet for this position. On your honor, you must mail it to PM BoJo before the end of the hunt.
(UP TO 1 MINUTE) Our friend Shoshannah Stern reads children’s stories in ASL with her Operation ASL Storytime. Let’s take a page out of her book: Find your favorite childhood story and read a page from it, all in sign language. (If you aren’t fluent, contact someone who is to verify accuracy. Any dialect is fine.) PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT post it online tagged with Shoshannah’s hashtag. That is a resource to provide linguistic access to children who are at risk of language deprivation. We need to keep that resource protected and accessible, so we’re serious about this: Don’t use her hashtag or you will be penalized! If you have posted with the hashtag, please delete and repost.
Add your voice to the Human Voice Bank at VocalID to help create a diverse resource so that people living with speechlessness can be heard in a voice that is uniquely theirs. Submit a video recording your voice for this tool.
Where do sock puppets go camping? Boot camp, of course.
A hinged jewelry box, but instead of a spinning ballerina inside, it’s a pole dancer. (no nudity)
Starting last week, Italy began debate on Alessandro Zan’s anti-discrimination bill to make hate speech and discrimination against LGBT people a punishable offense. Show your support: draw an Italian landmark in rainbow colors.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is known for her strength, her measured and wise jurisprudence, and her signature lace collars. But as all Gishers know, lacework used to be used to depict historic moments, so clearly you should crochet or knit a lace collar featuring a portrait of RBG or that conveys a message to her.
The Black Lives Matter movement inspired a lot of people to take action to address the realities of police brutality and the oppression that people of color live within many parts of the world every day. Thousands of people from all walks of life have been protesting, but with shelter-in-place restrictions and health considerations due to COVID, not everybody who has wanted to attend a rally or protest has been able to do so. We’re changing that. We’re hosting a virtual rally: post an image of yourself holding a poster with a message supporting equality or calling for an end to police brutality. Tag it #GISH4Equality and encourage your friends and teammates to participate, too. Then, submit your photo grid of yourself with your poster as well as the photos of other friends and teammates that joined in. Please submit the original picture grid of yourselves with your posters, NOT a screenshot of your posts.