March Mystery Madness -- Another year of multigenerational connections!

 If ever there was a March in need of some friendship and magic, it was this one!

"And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." ~Kahlil Gibran

Thank you to all those who kept the March Mystery Madness tradition alive and well this year. Hooray to the 7 children, 9 middle or high school youth, and 16 adults, 1 Easter Bunny and many stuffed animals and pets who were part of the Big Reveal Celebration on Zoom yesterday! The Big Reveal is when each person gets to meet their Mystery Buddy who they've been exchanging clues with all month.

Deep appreciation to Deborah Van Ness for making the magic happen by lovingly coordinating the many logistics for the magic to blossom! And THANK YOU to all the parents and caregivers who helped their young person answer the emails, and attach photos, and make it to yesterday's CELEBRATION.

After three weeks of exchanging emails with clues, questions and other fun tidbits about life via an intermediary email account (ucm.mystery@gmail.com) some of the buddies had narrowed down who it might be. After 15 minutes of Zoom visiting, people came back to the main room bubbling with exciting connections. "My buddy has a totally black cat, just like me!" "My buddy and I both speak French!" "We both really love to crack rocks open!" Many are hoping to keep the connection going. It is an awesome tradition.

Thank you to David Mears for bringing the idea to UCM about ten years ago, and to Sally Daab Armstrong and others for helping give it wings, and the many who have kept it going since then. If it can survive getting interrupted mid-way last year (it became May Mystery Madness) and being 100% virtual this year, I think it really has strong, deep roots at UCM now.