Society Spotlight on Elena Sonnino

It’s only fitting that our very first Everywhere Society spotlight goes to Elena Sonnino. Elena may be best known for her blog Live Do Grow, but to me she’s known as that friend you can call on when you are in a doubting mood. Elena does not just live, do, and grow in this world, but she also studies it and brings that studious commentary and thoughtfulness to both her friendship AND her writing. She shares a goal on her blog to empower teens to use their voice for good. Truth is, that’s Elena’s whole gestalt, “using her voice for good.”

Elena traveled to Haiti with Everywhere two years ago. We took a trip to meet the artisans behind the Macy’s Heart of Haiti program. We work on this campaign pro-bono, which unfortunately meant we could not sponsor the trip. Elena was about to leave her job as a teacher to start blogging full-time, not exactly a flush time in her life! Despite this, she did not hesitate to make the financial investment of flights, hotel and most importantly her time and her voice. Elena has continued to support Heart of Haiti and its artisans.

Honestly, any time Everywhere has a cause campaign, Elena is the first to jump on board. We had barely posted on Facebook that we had joined Mary’s Fischer’s 100 Good Deeds movement and before we could even ask, Elena had purchased a bracelet and wrote a blog post about it. When we wrote an e-book, Growing Up Giving, about how parents could encourage philanthropy with their children, we knew Elena would be our spirit guide. She was their offering editorial suggestions, commentary and encouragement.

So with that, we salute Elena Sonnino in our first Society Spotlight for being so studious and thoughtful, as well as for using her voice for good!