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Community Corner

Global Soccer Mom: 'Start Right Where You Are'

Wheaton's Shayne Moore released her new book. Patch talked with Moore about her experiences, the book, Wheaton and an upcoming book signing for a two-part feature.

Wheaton author Shayne Moore will sign her book Global Soccer Mom: Changing the World is Easier Than You Think  Thursday, Feb. 24 at Just the Bookstore, 475 N. Main St., Glen Ellyn for a book release party from 7 to 9 p.m. In the book, she suggests a new model for women today who want to raise their children, but also have voice and influence in the world.  

Rethinking Book Club

Despite Moore’s hopeful outlook on life, she admits to times of doubt. “I definitely had those moments where I thought, ‘What am I thinking? Who am I to make a difference?” Finally, Moore found the answer in a simple question to herself: Do the boundaries of my life limit me from making a difference?

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“I’ve come up with the answer ‘no,’” she said.

Moore offers a suggestion for women who are looking for a way to get started in their global advocacy efforts. “Start right where you are,” she says. “Instead of going to book clubs for books you didn’t read or maybe hated, why not meet once a month with your group of friends and start educating each other around issues of global need?”

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“Maybe one month you say, ‘You’re going to research this House bill on human trafficking. Then we’re going to decide together whether we want to do a letter writing campaign or if we want to call our congressman and say we support this legislation.’” 

Or, Moore suggests, the group could watch a documentary or some other film that raises awareness about a specific issue. “It would be fun,” she says. “Get your wine, get your Trader Joe’s noshies. We all know how to have the girls over. Who knows? Maybe you could even pool your money together to sponsor a child.”

“I love women because we do things in community,” she says. “It’s part of our untapped power of the soccer mom.”

‘Wheaton isn't how the world really is—and I say that in an affectionate way’

Having lived in Wheaton through junior high, high school, college, grad school and 17 years of marriage (minus a stint teaching in L.A.’s inner city schools), Moore is made starkly aware of the sharp contrasts between her life in an affluent suburb and the lives of many others living in poverty. “Wheaton isn’t how the world really is,” says Moore, quickly adding, “and I say that in an affectionate way. When I’ve traveled to Africa or gone to see poverty firsthand, the things I experience are troubling and difficult to digest. But I go to learn.”

During her two trips to Africa and one to Honduras, Moore is careful to remind herself why she is there. “I just go to listen. If you go to countries with the attitude of, ‘I’m here to save the world,’ that’s really not very effective.”

Book Release at Glen Ellyn’s Just the Bookstore

To tie in with Moore’s advocacy, Just the Bookstore will donate 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the book to the soccer program for the children of the Glen Ellyn’s Children’s Resource Center. In addition, coupons will be given for 10% off one purchase at Fuscia or The Bike Shop. In turn, Fuscia will donate 10% of those purchases to the GECRC and The Bike Shop will donate 10% to World Bicycle Relief.

World Bicycle Relief is another organization Moore has fallen in love with. “It’s a really cool organization,” says Moore of the Chicago-based program that works to get bicycles available to areas of poverty or disaster to further productivity and access to healthcare. “It’s this idea that bikes completely transform a person’s life,” says Moore. While in Africa, she met a man with a World Bicycle Relief bike. By being able to haul his goats behind the bike, the man was able to increase his profits five times over by taking the animals to sell in a larger village. 

“It’s hard to understand the reality, that a bike changes a grown man’s life and he can provide for his family and provide for an education and feed people, but there are still those kinds of discrepancies in the crazy world we live in right now.”

“The book is my journey, and my encouragement to other women,” she says. “It’s about totally embracing the blessings in your life, and being a global thinker, and raising awareness and educating yourself—that something as simple as a bike is completely changing a family’s life. I love my job as a mom. We can elevate our conversation and our influence. We can be engaged on a global level. Being moms does not limit this.”

 

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