Meet Anna Dravland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Dravland.

Hi Anna, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story. I often don’t know how or where to start my story. But I suppose I will start by telling you that I made a lot of mistakes in my life. Experienced a lot of trauma that led to a lot of substance abuse and bad choices.

I went back to college in my late 20s, graduating with honors at 32. I found my dream job working at Travel Marquette, sharing my oh-so-loved hometown.

On November 16th, 2017, my life changed forever. In the two weeks prior, I had gotten a raise and launched my passion project “Spread Goodness Day.” I had finally reached a point in my life where I felt like I was on the right path. That I was truly recovering everything I lost to alcoholism, abuse and trauma. Including my reputation and self-confidence.

As I walked to work that morning, the pain and confusion that had been escalating over the three weeks prior showed their cards. I had fallen, hit my head, and been knocked out. What I did not know is that my internal carotid artery had torn and was slowly ripping in half, forming blood clots. On my way to work that day, my carotid artery could not withstand the damage, ripped completely in half, and released two blood clots to different parts of my brain.

In one terrifying moment, I was paralyzed on the right side of my body and unable to speak. Unable to even consider the concept of calling 911. My brain was under attack and I was fighting for my life. In the first of many miracles, the single car that drove by me on the street while I was having a massive stroke happened to be a nursing professor at our local university. she saw me fall the second time in her rearview mirror and thought it looked “odd”. Because of her quick thinking, she had me in the hospital within 10 minutes and I was able to receive life-saving treatment.

But that is just the beginning of the story. I woke up paralyzed on the right side of my body, unable to communicate properly, remember my last name, or identify a photo of a cat. I woke up wondering if I would ever walk, talk, work, sing, dance, or live any sort of recognizable life again.

In those moments as you consider your new life, you consider the things that you absolutely cannot stand the idea of losing. When I woke up, I wanted two things with blistering clarity.

1. I wanted to go back to work. I wanted my job back. I loved my work so much that the idea of losing it ripped my heart into pieces. To this day, more than four years later, I still suffer the heartbreak of losing my career. I did try to go back to work, but the variety of deficits and damage that I suffered to my brain made it impossible.

2. I wanted Spread Goodness Day to survive. I woke up talking about it, thinking about it, and asking everybody to help me. I had just launched it. I just started to share this event, this invitation to change the world with me! I felt so confident and so passionate that we needed this celebration of goodness to remind us how powerful we are. And that we can literally change the world every single day with goodness. With every single choice.

I can honestly say that I gave every ounce of my everything to attaining both of these goals. My former employers in Travel Marquette did everything humanly possible to support my deficits so I could work. Eight months after my stroke, and three months after attempting to return to work. I made one of the hardest phone calls I’ve ever had to make. I called and sobbed my resignation to my director. I threw myself into Lake Superior with my dress on that day. I felt so lost. I felt like, for the first time, it became clear that perseverance was simply not enough to get everything back after a brain injury like that.

But Spread Goodness Day had the support of so many incredible volunteers, companies, sponsors, media, do gooders, etc, and we managed to keep it alive. Not just keep it alive but continue to grow it and spread goodness from the upper peninsula to Michigan and across the nation. On the second Friday of March every year, we invite the world to throw on some shades and do some good with us. Just show the epic power we have to change the world and make the future so bright we all need shades!
Every single thing about continuing with this nonprofit event and purpose became harder, messier, and less professional. For example, my communication barriers, cognitive issues, and inability to type due to loss of hand function. Extreme Neurofatigue. Horrible memory issues. I can tell you that even to this day, sometimes keeping this alive feels impossible in the face of my brain injury and other health issues. But, as long as I can keep it alive and inching forward, it brings me healing, purpose, passion and so much joy. We all said it at the beginning of my accident, but I wouldn’t have healed as well as I did if Spread Goodness Day hadn’t been created and scheduled and there for me to fight for. I’ve been delighted to find that it’s actually scientifically proven that spreading goodness and acts of service literally do heal you. Endorphins, serotonin, and oxytocin, reduce inflammation! If somebody surprises you with goodness you even get a shot of dopamine.

On March 11, 2022, we celebrated our fifth annual celebration of goodness. Spread Goodness Day has been declared a state holiday by Governor Whitmer and a city holiday by Jenna Smith of Marquette. We’ve inspired an estimated 2,000,000+ acts of goodness throughout the world, had at least 30 schools/classes, 400+ businesses & organizations and countless individuals participate over the five years. And these are just conservative numbers because we don’t track much. We don’t want to be about the numbers or the show. We want to be about the impact and actually feel how powerful explosive goodness can be when we’re doing it together, deliberately and enthusiastically.

Since my stroke, I have also survived gas poisoning, two abdominal surgeries, a diagnosis of severe and rare migraines and now I’m facing “gut reconstruction” surgery at the Cleveland Clinic for rare intestinal malrotation.

My life is not easy. It is filled with a lot of pain and confusion. But it’s also filled with gratitude, goodness, empowerment, and the belief that no matter what, I can still change the world.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some of these are tricky for me to answer. My story is very detailed and overwhelming at times. It has not been a smooth road. Navigating a rare stroke, with rare undiagnosed migraines, rare undiagnosed intestinal issues and an unknown gas leak created confusion like no other.

It can be very difficult to communicate effectively in the medical system and, unfortunately, sometimes when they don’t understand it, they dismiss it. Or they want to put you in the box of “anxiety.” Learning to navigate these conversations and advocate for my health has been one of the most horrifying, humiliating, and empowering experiences I’ve ever had.

Another challenge I struggle to face is that I look healthy. I look like a strong, vibrant, happy 38-year-old woman. I have a good attitude and I fight every single day to infuse Goodness into my world. I smile a lot, even minutes after I quit sobbing. It’s created a difficult disconnect with the community. I feel a lot of difficulty connecting with people in a way that they can understand how my injuries/illness truly impact my life. There is an unfortunate tendency towards judgment of people who are on disability, especially if they have invisible injuries. I don’t expect that this is a problem that will go away anytime soon. But this challenge absolutely has driven me to find a comfortable, confident center of peace inside myself. The people close to me know what I struggle with and that I fight for every moment of happiness and goodness I get. Any judgment beyond that has started to slip away over the years. I do wish people would be more communicative with the disabled community instead of “hush-hush” kind of, behind-closed-doors conversations. People are pretty uncomfortable with the idea of a normal person being disabled. Because that means they could become disabled. Any one of us could have an accident and have our lives changed and people don’t like to feel that way.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Since my stroke, I have tried 1 billion different ideas for how I can go back to work. I wanted to find a way to be self-sustaining. But, in lieu of the reality of my deficits, I have found that volunteering is the best way for me to stay connected, feel good, and make a difference. I get to do it the way I can, with the energy I have. I’m so overwhelmingly proud of Spread Goodness Day and its success. Because the big thing to me is that Spread Goodness Day is about everybody else. If you all don’t take my invitation to go out and Spread Goodness Day together, nothing happens. I can invite you but, if you don’t come to the party— there’s no party! I’m amazed and so grateful for all the goodness I’ve gotten to see, experience, and stand in awe of.

In addition to the one-day event, I try to engage in different projects throughout the year to support my community. I found ways to incorporate events that mostly involve other people doing things and me just inviting them to do it. For two years we’ve collected warm clothing for an event called Bundle Up Marquette. We collect for a few weeks and then we put all of the clothing out in a public park and we leave. “Shoppers” can come and take whatever they need, with no supervision. Nobody is on display as they get what they need to stay warm. We’ve also done three flower giveaways where we hide bouquets around town, we’ve sponsored pet adoptions, held apparel fundraisers for other nonprofits, etc.

What makes me the happiest and, I guess what I’m known for now, is spreading goodness and volunteering. I was passionate about volunteering for seven years prior to my stroke. I’m so grateful that I can keep certain pieces of that part of my life in place. I do it differently now. I’m not the event coordinator and the hostess and the twirling networking machine. But I’ve adapted to my deficits to maintain my passion for my community. It truly makes me so happy to succeed in making an impact, No matter how big or small.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I think the COVID-19 crisis reiterated a message inside me that was already rolling around. That life is not certain. We have to be prepared to adapt and change. We cannot expect to have that job to go back to, or that our health will always be perfect. Just like my brain injury, if I had just sat around and waited to get my old job back and kept pushing at that door, I would’ve failed. Sometimes, the world changes. You change. And you have to be willing to seek new paths, try them out and then go right back to the beginning and start again.

Contact Info:

• Email: Spreadgoodnessday@gmail.com
• Website: www.kindnessismyclick.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spreadgoodnessday/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/spreadgoodnessday/
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/spreadgoodness1
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCelhcVfR58NuB8wvgD9HjEA