Carissa's Everybody Club

by Linda Hayen

​Before I approached Nancy about the Everybody Club book idea, I had found a couple of the original badges that Carissa made years ago.  We used these as inspiration during the process of creating the book.  As we worked on the book off and on from May 2013 until March 2020, more memories about Carissa’s club gradually came back to me. I knew there was more memorabilia somewhere; I just didn’t know where.
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Then I moved.  And I finally went through all of the boxes of Carissa’s things that had been sitting in the basement for 20 years.  About halfway down a large box of school papers and projects, I found them: Carissa’s original documents for her club.  
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​pin, motto, club colors, flag, membership card, and oath

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club song, badges, and awards

​Todd's attendance records

My first thought was that it was unfortunate I had not found these things earlier, but I quickly realized it was all good. In fact, it seemed like a sign from Carissa to keep going. And Nancy was happy and relieved that the book aligned so well with Carissa’s ideas.
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We hope that the guidelines Carissa made for her own club so long ago will provide inspiration for lots of future Everybody Clubs!