This Week in Wizard Activism: Celebrating Harry’s Birthday!
By Deanna Cooley
Welcome to a brand-new This Week in Wizard Activism, and a brand-new month!
The Happy Birthday Harry 5K Races On!
This week we celebrated with wizard racers around the world in the Happy Birthday Harry 5K! Our virtual race had 1,000 participants on four continents (North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia). Be sure to check out the #HappyBirthdayHarry5K hashtag on Instagram for smiling faces, beautiful Potter-themed race routes, and several very, very good dogs.
Congratulations to everyone who participated! It has been extremely hot most places in the northern hemisphere, so kudos for taking on this amazing challenge.
Staffer of the Week!
Anna lives in Boston and is the HPA’s Immigration/Migration Researcher. She is extremely passionate about human rights and helping people who are not in positions or cannot, get the help they need. Before she was our Immigration Researcher, Anna put together mental health research reports, so she is also passionate about mental health/medical care access in the United States and abroad. Although she can’t remember her the exact start of her social activism, she believes it was protesting violence and racism in college.
Let’s get to know Anna a little bit better!
Fave HP book and why? (or favorite book of all time)
My favourite HP book would have to be Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I love Remus Lupin as a character, and to see how the events of the Second War both shaped the Marauders, and essentially the whole wizarding world to an extend was really neat. I’ll admit I hoped that Sirius would get to adopt Harry. My favourite book of all time might be Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis. (He wrote Sci-Fi, which not a lot of people know!) If you get a chance, listen to the dramatisation on BBC Radio.
Last show you binge-watched?
Last show I binge-watched was Good Omens. So, so good.
Favorite class you’ve ever taken in school?
The best class I ever took in school had to be a class on J.R.R Tolkien. Not only did we learn a lot of Anglo-Saxon, we learned about Tolkien as an etymologist — we also had to read all of the books, including the Silmarillion. As a bonus, we had to re-enact the Council of Elrond, but there were a few people there who were not invited. Like Saruman, Gollum, and others. Amongst other shenanigans, I played Erestor, and was surrounded by hobbits. (Its funnier when you realise I was much, much shorter than the hobbits.) Gollum and Bilbo got into a ruler fight, and Saruman pleaded that if he was given the ring he would bring peace, order, and pie to Middle Earth.
Thanks for all you do for the HPA, Anna!
Did you know we still have some volunteer positions open?
Check out our open opportunities here, and join us in this fun family that is the HPA!
