Thursday, February 7, 2008

Speaking on the Orphan Trains!

There are times when being an orphan is not so bad,
at least you don't have family worries! Emma Symms
An invite to speak at the 2008 Nebraska Orphan Train Celebration - Fremont, NE
WOW - Ok let me bring you back a few steps (or should I say Stops). In my previous post I mentioned I am being honored by THE HOME for Little Wanderers - Boston MA - on Wednesday May 28, 2008. http://www.thehome.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_voices_visions
Last year while I was listening to the Toastmasters http://www.toastmasters.org/
2001 “World Champion of Public Speaking” (WCPS), Darren LaCroix's, http://www.humor411.com/ "Get Paid to Speak Next Week" audio CD in my car…my mouth suddenly opened when Darren mentioned a woman named Charlotte Endorf endorf@cableone.net who wrote a book - PLAINS BOUND FRAGILE CARGO - about the Orphan Trains.
THE HOME http://www.thehome.org/ is part of the Orphan Trains Movement too. Children who were orphaned from the civil war were taken in, taught how to sing and put on trains heading out west to be adopted by loving families!
I knew I had to connect with Charlotte and we emailed briefly in Aug 2007. The other day I sent Charlotte an email letting her know about my honoree news. I also asked Charlotte for help and pointers about writing my book THE LITTLE WANDERERS HOME - my personal journey as a Little Wanderer.
Charlotte sent me info about her publishing company http://outskirtspress.com/ as well as pointers and THEN at the very end of her email she invited me to speak as a special guest about "THE HOME" during the 2008 Nebraska Orphan Train Celebration on April 26 & 27 2008 that her family is co-sponsoring in Nebraska during actual train ride.
{For more information - Endorf Enterprises at 402-371-3701 endorf@cableone.net }
And how PRICELESS IS THIS BOUNUS! - Charolett is giving me two signed copies of her book as well as her new DVD which includes 40 or more stories of the 8,500 miles she has traveled getting their stories - as a thank you for agreeing to be a guest speaker! http://www.outskirtspress.com/plainsbound

I am taking my 10-year-old daughter Sabrina with me. We are Fragile Cargo...Heading West...Plains Bound...Boarding the Orphan Trains!
Friends this is a turning point for me in such a short amount of time – I am being honored by an agency that I respect so much and I also get to speak during a celebration from a movement I believe in so much! As well as meeting people who cared enough to keep this piece of history alive!!

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FACT -
An orphan (from the Greek ορφανός) is a person (typically a child), who has lost both parents, often through death. One legal definition used in the USA is someone bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents".[1] Common usage limits the term to children, (or the young of animals) who have lost both parents. On this basis half-orphans are those with one surviving parent.

In certain animal species where the father typically abandons the mother and child at or prior to birth, the child will be called an orphan when the mother dies regardless of the condition of the father.
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More links about orphan trains

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