1 Story The Human Connection 7 Million Pajamas and Books

my name is genevieve peturo

but i always wanted to be mary tyler

moore i watched mary

every week she was my idol

she moved to a big city she got a job in

tv

a single independent woman she had a

great apartment

a fabulous best friend they had so many

adventures

and she had the most amazing wardrobe

i wanted it all i wanted that success

i wanted that status and i wanted that

power

and what i came to learn over the next

20 years

was that there was a very different idea

of power that was more impressive

and more meaningful so i was climbing

that corporate ladder

getting all the things that mary had and

after 15 years

of climbing very fast i heard a voice

voice came from here didn’t come from

here

it usually does and the voice asked me

clearly in a whisper if this is the next

30 years of your life

is this enough

wow it rocked me

i sat down and i thought

almost immediately no

i miss something in my very

traditional upbringing italian family

father off the boat mom’s family from

sicily

i was the first born first child first

daughter

that’s me the chubby girl on the right

and it really was

expected that i would yes go to college

but then get married and have children

and that wasn’t my path it was very

traditional get a job

climb the corporate ladder be successful

my father’s work

ethic and my mother’s love

so that voice that day

asking me if this is enough

really made me focus on what i had been

doing

and where i was going and the answer

that came so fast to me

was no you did miss

something and i realized i missed having

my own family

and i missed having children

so i thought what what in the world

could i do

at that point to bring children into my

life

and i watched the news every night

and i read the newspaper every morning

and

i saw pictures and heard stories of the

atrocities that were that belong to the

children

in my town in my city

who were neglected and abandoned and

brought into shelters

and i thought oh my goodness if i could

go and reach those kids at night

maybe i could bring a little peace a

little

normalcy to their lives i don’t know why

that voice came to me i thought i was on

my way

to what i thought would be a fulfilling

life

but it came to me i called the shelters

they were happy to have me come in and i

was thrilled to go in

i had a bag of children’s books i was in

my corporate suit

and i showed up they showed me into a

room

which was bare and the carpets were worn

there wasn’t any place for a grown-up to

sit

so i sat on the floor

i saw little faces at the door

and one by one children were peering in

and one by one my heart was melting a

little more and it was a rush of

emotions i think i’d been climbing so

fast that i didn’t have time to

feel but what i was feeling then was

just i was overcome

one by one that came in they sat on the

floor and i read the stories

week after week that that moment i

arrived and those minutes i spent with

those children were the quietest i had

ever been in my life week after week the

same routine a different shelter

one night i went to see where they were

going to another room

to go to sleep at night and what i saw

broke my heart they had nothing to

change into

they were just futons and cots and the

was as bare as the room i’d been reading

in

and they were all the same in every

shelter

lovely staff but this wasn’t bedtime

my mom made bedtime incredible

we had cookies and milk and story after

story and she’d make up stories

and of course we had pajamas

there weren’t any so

as i was leaving i asked if i could

bring pajamas and they said that’d be

great i brought pajamas next week

sat on the floor read the stories and

one by one i gave out the pajamas to the

kids

i thought they were going to be so

excited but as always they were very

quiet

one little girl wouldn’t take the

pajamas she just shook her head

i didn’t know what was wrong the other

children took the pajamas no problem

went into the room to go to sleep but

not her

she was afraid i didn’t know what what

so i tried one more time she shook her

head no

she wanted to watch me so they let her

watch me off to the side

i handed the rest of the pajamas out and

i walked over to her

i still had the pink pajamas i picked

for her over my shoulder

i went over to her and i knelt down

and i said honey these are for you i

know they’ll fit you they’re pink and

you have pink in your

shirt and her shirt was soiled

and her pants were too short and her

shoes our sneakers were so big

and her ponytails were lopsided so all i

could do was

offer her these clean warm and cozy

new pajamas i made one more attempt

and she looked at me and she said

what are they what are pajamas

she could barely say the word pajamas

i found myself explaining this little

girl

that pajamas are what you change into

they didn’t have to wear your clothes at

night

that was that was it for me

my emotions were running amok they took

her over to the side to the bedroom and

they

changed her into the pajamas and she

gave me a little smile

and that was the beginning of the end as

they say

and that power that i thought was the

all-important answer to everything that

i was looking for

wasn’t and a new a new idea of power

was starting to form i started to tell

people

about her this little girl i told

everybody

and it seemed that everybody who had

been standing with me in front of her

she and i had this connection this human

connection

and then everybody i told this story to

had the same connection not just with me

but with

her somehow the human connection

that whole idea is so powerful

that it stops everybody

in the moment in in the rushing of our

lives

to see and feel that little girl

talk about power so everybody i told

connected with me and with her

and with the same idea that this isn’t

right

day after day word spread

i got a call from a man who started

asking me questions

started asking me why was i doing this

what was i doing where was i getting the

pajamas

what did i think it was going to happen

i thought i was going to get arrested i

didn’t know what he was asking me all

these questions for

and he said do you think this is really

helping

i said that’s all that’s all i can do

and he said it is helping i was a little

boy in an orphanage

and the bedtime was my most frightening

lonely time

and i can tell you i felt love from afar

when i knew someone was thinking about

me and i know these children feel

this love and your compassion from afar

so the human connection was starting

in a small way first with her to me then

with me

and everybody else everybody else to her

and visibly

and more people were being connected

first it was dave then there was

hurricane katrina

i got a call from a man named randy

randy said you’re giving out pajamas to

children what about the children of the

families devastated by hurricane katrina

down south

i have trucks if you have pajamas

wow there’s just a couple of us

doing this now

eleven thousand pairs of pajamas showed

up

at his loading dock and put on those

trucks

and we got down to the houston astrodome

about a connection between all those

people through one man

who had the idea maybe the human

connection would work

got to the door of the houston astrodome

i had made contact with a nurse that was

there i needed

to connect with somebody on that side

and she said we need them desperately

these people have nothing and these

children

some of them are very sick and i’m doing

the best i can but we have a full

dome here bring those pajamas and call

me when you get outside the doors

it was midnight we got outside the doors

i called her

tried to get in before she can get to

the doors the security guard was telling

us no way he wasn’t opening that door

left the truck on the floor

i heard lynn and she knew i was on the

other side of the door

and she knew what we had and i heard her

yelling

at the security guard threatening him

with neglect

if these children didn’t get those

pajamas those clean clothes because they

had been

in soiled and wet clothes

for days those doors opened

and our truck rolled onto the floor and

those children got their pajamas

lynn a stranger a nurse connected to

this

little idea this human connection was

growing

a national magazine heard

about pajamas for children

they wrote an article this big

thousands tens of thousands of boxes and

letters and pajamas and books and cash

showed up at my doorstep i met a great

man

just during that time and i told him

what i was thinking about doing and he

said go for it

connection number 1000 that magazine

touched so many people

that all those boxes kept arriving

it was unbelievable i couldn’t believe

about this invisible

connection then a national show tv show

called

said come on tell the story tell us

about the kids tell us about what we can

do

i went on to the show

what an incredible surprise to know

that everyone in the studio audience was

told

to bring a pair of pajamas

and then get as many as they could in

ways that

were going to be a surprise 32

000 pairs of pajamas

revealed were collected all those people

that human connection and all along

i was still in awe and surprised and

unaware of its power

but there was one more idea

that still was going to come to the

surface soon

20 years

20 years and 7 million pairs of pajamas

and books now

distributed to children across the us

and puerto rico

63 national chapters

in cities and states across the u.s

that power of the human connection

led to a final idea

which is a truth that

i became aware of suddenly

because all through the 20 years people

were saying look at the power of one

look at the power of one people do

things and it’s just an idea and look

it’s a power of one person that’s all we

need one person

and i say no that human connection

is not the power of one it’s the power

of

one another and that power of one

another

moves mountains and moves people