Glennon Melton
When Naples author Glennon Doyle Melton became sober, she decided she wanted to live a meaningful life by helping others. The problem was, none of the nursing homes or shelters where she applied as a volunteer wanted a recovering alcoholic, drug and food addict who had been arrested five times as a part of their organization.
They would never know who they were turning away.
In her New York Times best selling memoir “Carry On, Warrior,” Melton says that she decided that maybe her public service could be to use her gift of storytelling to tell the truth about her life to others. She hoped that her “criminal” record would give her the “street cred” to reach others. She began by telling her story about her addiction and recovery to her church congregation. The tiny, effervescent woman with the infectious smile and “perfect” family shocked the congregants with her details but they responded in kind with their own stories and tears. Now, through her blog Momastery.com and her acts of service, Melton is helping millions of women change their lives, one “sister” at a time.
Melton began blogging on her website Momastery.com seven years ago but it was not until 2011 that one of her essays went viral. Titled “Don’t Carpe Diem,” the essay spoke about not shaming parents for not loving every moment of parenthood. She knew she was on to something when the post received around 500,000 shares and agents and Huffington Post came calling. The Today Show featured Melton after two such posts: one about her child’s teacher’s anti-bullying techniques and another about gratitude. Melton now has nearly half a million Facebook followers, as well as almost 41,000 Twitter followers and more than 101,000 followers on Instagram, who read daily about Melton’s humorous and poignant struggles and successes with recovery, parenting, and marriage, as well as inspirational thoughts on current events.
Perhaps the first time Neapolitans realized that Melton was one of their own was after she wrote an essay about the monkeys at the Naples Zoo. Riding on the cruise around the tiny, unfenced islands where the monkeys live, Melton wondered aloud why the monkeys would not try to escape. “They could easily get to each other’s islands or escape the entire zoo pretty easily,” the zoo guide answered. “Their problem is, they don’t know that they can swim.” This served as an analogy in Melton’s post about feeling alone and trapped in her world, when in reality she already had the skills she needed to change her life.
The power of Melton’s writing goes beyond the virality of her posts. The comments posted by the readers reflect how Melton’s wise and witty writing has changed their lives. Her public speaking talent draws in fans during monthly speaking engagements across the country, where Melton enjoys getting to touch and embrace members of the audience while they share their stories. “I see divisiveness on the news, but not on the road,” Melton comments about her time on tour. “People are craving connectedness.”
Melton’s audience shows her their heart not only online but in the thousands of letters that she receives. “One of the greatest honors of my life is opening these one at a time, letting my heart break and soar for each woman, witnessing each story, and then once a month, burning them all to ashes in my backyard,” she recently posted on Instagram. “We don’t need anyone to fix our pain -- we just need someone to witness it.”
Melton wanted to give back to her audience with more than words and presence. She created the nonprofit Together Rising, which is operated by volunteers so that 100% of the proceeds go to its intended recipients. According to the nonprofit’s website, the surest way to lift a family or community is to lift a woman. When a woman rises, she brings her people up with her. When she rises, families rise, communities rise, and the world rises. Together Rising exists to heal the world, one HER at a time, the website says.
The fundraisers are called “Love Flash Mobs,” where the giving window is open for 24 hours and no one is allowed to donate more than $25. This is so the result belongs to everyone, she explains. The November Love Flash Mob raised $500,000, which was more than twice their goal to fund a new wing on a maternity center in Haiti, which has since broken ground. Recent events with the Syrian refugee crisis prompted the nonprofit's board to use the remaing money to donate strollers, baby clothes, hygiene kits and baby carriers to fund floodlights, translators, shelters and food kitchens for refugees in Greece, Serbia, France and Germany. A call to Patagonia for bulk pricing resulted in the company donating $30,000 of winter clothing for all of the refugee families. To date, the Love Flash Mobs have raised over $2 million.
Melton says that her family here in Naples also will be making some changes for 2016. “My New Year’s resolution is that my family is going to stop watching cable news,” she announces. “The news is no longer about what happened; it’s about pushing people into their corners.” Melton and her husband Craig plan to stay informed by reading and choosing reputable news sources to present current events to their three children. “I want my kids to know what happened, but I want them to hear the balance … I want to teach them not to fear our differences,” she says. “We need to stop being so afraid of each other.”