Photo by Kate Norberg
AUGUST 2018 I BOROMAG.COM 17
One of the most heartwarming parts of
Grateful Peoples’ story is how big a part
the community of Astoria played in getting
this project off the ground. The Brass
Owl, Sai Organics and Quontic Bank are
just a few of the businesses where you
can find the colorful journals.
“We held a workshop at OK Café near
Ditmars last year, which was really cool,”
Droseros recalled. “A bunch of people
from the community came and I talked
about the project. Talking in front of
people is always a growing experience
for me. Giselle at OK Café gave me that
experience, which I’m really grateful for.”
Astoria Coffee was the first business
that accepted one of the journals. They
are now on their fourth book, calling Droseros
for a new one every time the pages
fill up with moments of gratitude from
people in the neighborhood.
Recently, a woman whose friend passed
away contacted Droseros, knowing her
friend wrote in a journal left at Astoria
Coffee. Droseros took the time to locate
her late friend’s writing and gifted the
journal to the woman. That’s the wonderful
thing about gratitude – we can look for
it even in the darkest moments.
When asked about the future of Grateful
Peoples, Droseros talked about his
next labor of love: a coffee table book.
“We’re collecting filled up journals from
around the country and will compile them
all into one place to give people the experience
of being inspired by all these
cool, fun and crazy thoughts,” he said. “I
plan to use at least 1,000 entries. I want to
keep it as close as possible to the current
book. It would be impossible to capture
the same energy because these books I
have at home, hundreds of people have
touched them and put their energy into
them. You can’t recreate that with something
that’s printed, but I’m going to do
my best job to give people that same experience.
There’s energy in handwriting
– character and personality – so I’m just
going to leave the handwriting as it is and
let people feel what they feel from it.”
For more information, visit gratefulpeoples.
com.
Photos by SB Photography