Last week, I went to my mailbox expecting nothing, but hoping for something — a note from an old friend, a card with a bird’s feather in it, anything. It’s rare I receive actual mail these days, and if you’re my Facebook friend you probably have seen my celebratory posts when I do receive real mail that isn’t junk mail.
To my surprise, there was an envelope addressed by hand in my little metal mailbox. I reached in, pulled it out and before I closed and locked the door, I saw it was from the Puffin Foundation. I had applied for a grant in December 2016, and kind of forgot the notification date was July.
Looking at the envelope, I was certain it was a rejection letter. After all, 99% of the time that’s what they are. And I’ve applied several times for a Puffin grant and been rejected each time. On my way to the elevator I thought about just tearing it in half, decided to open it, so I used my key to slice the top open. I was surprised to find more than one sheet of paper in the envelope. Usually a rejection is kept to one sheet, economical, short, and not so sweet. Removing the papers I also saw what could only be the back of a check! Yippee!!!! I received a grant from the super awesome Puffin Foundation.
The Puffin Foundation is based in a small New Jersey town adjoining the one I grew up in, so it kind of feels like a gift from the homeland. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for A Life’s Work ! It is a tremendous financial lift, but also a welcome psychological and emotional lift as I head into the nerve-wracking final phases of post-production.
As of the date of this post, we’re still looking for about $7,000 so that we can get the film into a finished and beautiful enough state for the Sundance Film Festival application deadline (early September). If you’d like to help us reach that goal, consider contributing $5 or $10 to A Life’s Work. It’s super easy to do via the New York Foundation for the Arts web site, and it’s super secure, too.