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Aloha everyone!
My name is Shauntelle LeBlanc, I hail from the great city of Toronto, and I live by the motto "Life is Too Short for Beige."
I have decided to take the leap and I am officially asking to join your sacred ranks and to become a FOM member.
Since our first Ohana (the FIRST Ohana) in 2009, my love of tiki and my hawaiian dress collection have only grown bigger every year. But it's not just about the multiple hair flowers, exotica tunes and vintage bangle-stacks for me...I love how the FOM embodies fun with a purpose, and the inclusiveness and lack of pretension of it all.
I consider myself a vintage gal (former commercial interior designer, current vintage furniture store owner) and the community aspect of the FOM reminds me so much of the stories my folks tell of when they first got married in the early 60s, and having moved away from both their families they joined similar organizations to find a sense of community that they were lacking. My dad went on to be a volunteer coach for minor hockey for over 40 years and my mom did volunteer work with the CWL (Catholic Women's League) all throughout my childhood and this instilled a strong sense of civic duty and giving back in me. That said, my parents also knew how to have a good time; they threw cocktail parties and they stayed up all night playing euchre and drinking rum & cokes with friends.
But something happened between then and now. There were fewer organizations to belong to, and the ones that did exist were full of older people sitting and swapping old war-stories in faded clubhouses. And outside of my tight circle of friends, there were no cocktail parties any more. There's a great book that came out in 2000: it's called Bowling Alone and the author, Robert Putnam, articulates this dilemma. Folks just aren't joiners like they used to be. But then I met the FOM. Here's a group that understands the importance of being absolutely unselfconsciously silly while being together and, most importantly, doing good work while they're at it. Work, I might add, that's bigger than they are, work that effects people they've never met in some cases.
I try my hardest to not lead a beige life; my Spirit Animal is Mrs. Roper. I want to play dress-up, mix drinks, listen to kooky tunes and do it all in the name of a greater good. I want to leave a legacy of good times and good work.
If there's an equally colourful FOM member out there who would like to sponsor me (and that sure won't be hard to find!), I would be tickled turquoise!
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Life Is Too Short For Beige
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