Update from our CEO | October 2023

Dear Friend of the Museum,

If I say “Mr. Rogers,” it probably immediately sends a wave of happiness through you. For those who have kids, grandkids, have worked in a profession focused on children, or perhaps just watched television in their formative years, Fred Rogers set the standard. It is a standard of kindness, sympathy, positivity, and the building of trust.

Perhaps the most quoted quote of Mr. Rogers is what he had to say about helpers: 

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

“Look for the helpers” is great advice for children. In your moment of need, or uncertainty, or crisis, look for those who are there to offer you comfort, assistance, or a safe way to move forward. It is a reassurance that there is good in the world.

I am honored to be recognized this week with a 2023 Helpers Award from the Fred Rogers Institute, having been nominated by my four children. The caring adults being recognized by the Institute are in a wide range of professions, from school nutritionist to counselor to educator to call center operator to street outreach director to surgeon to fire chief to chef…as well someone affectionately known to many as The Play Lady. The broad makeup of this group reminds and heartens me that helpers for children are everywhere. 

It also makes me hopeful that when kids have a need, we each can find that helper inside of us. We are all required to be helpers.

This recognition got me thinking. The world is very different today than it was when Mr. Rogers first told us to look for the helpers. If I were so lucky as to speak with him today, I would like to get his thoughts on the need not just for people who help, but also for those who work to effect change. Yes, children facing a hard time need to know that there are people who will help. Helpers are important, and helpers are heroes. 

But I’d convey to Mr. Rogers my thought that we should also look for and celebrate those who see the challenges facing kids and their futures—whether it is injustice, climate change, intolerance, or something else—and take it upon themselves to try to change things for the better. 

There are of course the “big" changers, people who devote extended and sustained time, energy, and focus to difficult and weighty issues, and I am so grateful to them. But we can all be changers in smaller but important ways, ways that our kids can see. 

Last weekend I and other museum staff participated in a local Walk Against Hate. There I saw a street full of changers. Many people brought their kids or grandkids, and those kids saw the adults in their lives as changers. They witnessed what it is like to stand up for change where you believe it needs to happen. 

It is important for kids to know that adults are working on the issues that they see and hear and perhaps feel in the world around them. Kids are taking it all in and their sense of the future is being affected. They need to be able to take comfort in knowing there are both helpers and changers who can give us hope. 

As always, I welcome your feedback directly at ngordon [at] discoveryacton.org (ngordon[at]discoveryacton[dot]org).

Be well,

Neil Gordon
CEO