Discussing and Remembering Dewey

[Maw Books]

It is a sad week within the book blogging community. Dewey from Hidden Side of a Leaf passed away this past week. To say that she leaves behind a huge void is a understatement. Not only was she a prolific reader, reviewer and blogger but she was also the founder and organizer of Weekly Geeks, the Bookworms Carnival, and the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. And I'm sure I'm unaware of many others. We have all been influenced by her amazing energy, creative juices and bringing the community together. She was a wonderful friend. Florinda at The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness perhaps summed everything up best on this well thought out post. She already has a list of bloggers willing to help.

There has been a lot of discussion on many blogs and twitter about how to cope with that loss.

Some of that discussion has included:

1 - How to best express our condolences to Dewey's family. Many of us have her address in which to send cards/packages. It's been mentioned to donate money/books to her local library, donate money to have her family plant a tree in her name, gather all the online tributes to make sure that Dewey's family doesn't miss them all, send flowers, etc.

2. - How to best carry on the amazing community building events that Dewey started. Many have already expressed interest in taking up some of these projects, includes challenges, Weekly Geeks, the 24 Hour Read-a-thon (this has gotten so big, it probably should have a dedicated blog), secret santa (with Nymeth), and the Bookworms Carnival. Dewey already had a lot of help on many of these projects so I'm sure many feel more prepared than others to step up to the plate.

3 - Raych from Books I Done Read has asked for a RIP button to place on our blogs.

4 - Keeping Dewey's husband in the loop. He mentioned that he would like to either see Dewey's blog continue or just let it rest. Either way, I think he should be in the know how.

So what now? Let's figure it out! Ideas, like to help, etc? I thought that we should get a discussion going in just one place, so it's not spread out among everybody. This certainly doesn't make me the "moderator" here. I just want to be able to talk amongst ourselves. What have I missed?

And if you're reading this discussion that get the word out and direct traffic over here. I'll set up another discussion to list links of our remembrance posts.

[Terri]

Please include me too - Terri Reading, Writing and Retirement

[Rebecca Reid]

Florinda, has anyone shown any interest in the Martel-Harper Challenge? I'd be able to do that on my blog. For some reason I really like that challenge, and Dewey was just getting it off the ground.

[Callista]

I'm glad to see some of the events are being taken on my others. I'm not able to do much although i hope to help out with some small aspect of the readathon. I do agree with leaving her blog the way it is as a tribute. We can access all her posts but nothing new will be added. I will be sending a card to Lisa to forward on but won't be able to contribute to any sort of memorial. I feel bad about that but it's just not possible money wise.

[Christine]

Don't feel bad that you can't afford a donation right now. I imagine that your kind words will mean more to her family, anyway.

[Betty]

I'm so sorry for all your losses. I just discovered her blog very recently, I think just a couple of weeks ago, and never really got a chance to know her or participate in any of her reading challenges, I was very interested in the Bookworm Carnival though, and I remembered thinking how come there hadn't been any update on it. I am very sorry for your losses of someone who was obviously well loved and contributed so much in this community, please extend my condolences to her family.

[Veronica Arreola]

Thanks for starting this thread! And I'm full with my other projects, but I am willing to help out when I can.

I also want to put on the table that if Dewey's husband keeps the site up, I assume that there are some hosting fees involved. Perhaps we need to be fundraising to pay an annual hosting fee as well? To whomever is chatting with Mr. Dewey, please add that to your list.

I love the idea of donating to her library. I'm sure every library in this country would appreciate a few dollars here and there.

[Bookish Ruth]

I think all of the ideas mentioned so far -- maintaining Dewey's projects, a memorial and donation to her local library -- are fantastic and very fitting tributes to an amazing blogger. I'm still fairly new to blogging so I didn't have the opportunity to know Dewey as long as many of you (and I am poorer for that), but her passion for the blogging community was truly inspiring. And as saddened as I am by her passing, I can't help but think that she would be SO PROUD to see how the blogging community has banded together over the past two days.

I'll be glad to help in any way that I can.

[Book Zombie]

Wow it is simply amazing to see how much work and thought everyone has done so far. It also really shows how dedicated Dewey was to the BookBlogging community, how she organized all of these events is mind-blowing.

I am 100% for keeping the various events going (Read-A-Thon, Carnival, WG) I think it would be wrong to let all Dewey's community building stop, and I think she would be pretty peeved if we didn't keep them going. I would like to volunteer to help out with a group effort to run WG.

Also as others mentioned, I think that Dewey's personal site should be left as it. It seems more fitting to set up new blogs for the projects. My thoughts are that the community is continuing Dewey's work not replacing it. I'm not sure how anyone else feels on this but when a new post popped up in my reader for Hidden Side Of The Leaf, I was excited and looked forward to seeing what Dewey was up to. Hopefully that makes sense as to why I think it would feel wrong to use the existing site.

The memorial badge/button is wonderful. I will proudly display it on my blog.

And I'm all for a donation in her name to a library/reading fund. I think she would really appreciate people spreading the love of reading. I think I also read something about planting a tree in her name, and I recall Dewey saying that her home was near a state? national? park and she talked about enjoying nature and wildlife - I'm not sure about how it works in the US, but many of Canada's provincial parks have memorial donation programs.

Well I didn't mean to write a novel here, just wanted to throw in my thoughts and say that I would love to be a part of whatever ends up being decided.

[unfinishedperson]

I was extremely saddened to see about the passing of Dewey, but heartened to see all of your responses toward her passing, including carrying on her legacy.

In short, I will be glad to assist in whatever way I can: carnivals, Weekly Geeks, etc. I can be contacted here or at [e-mail].

If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have met all of you, and that was, and is, a very good thing. I'd like to say more, but I just saw the first message a moment ago...and am...well...verklempft.

P.S. Just saw the mention of the badge...off to find it to put it on my blog.

[bethany (dreadlock girl)]

It looks like you all have things covered. I'd love to make another button, so we could have two, would that help? I love making buttons!


Let me know how to help and I will :) I'd especially love to help out with the read-a-thon.

You all are great, so much help here!!!

[bethany (dreadlock girl)]

I made two buttons, let me know if you need anything else, I would love to help!

[Maw Books]

Beautiful! I just noticed Stephanie from The Written Word made one as well and is posting them tomorrow. Here's one of them: