My name is Veronica Richmond. I’m a tall, nerdy girl who first got involved with One Stone through joining Two Birds back in 2018. Now, I’m the Managing Director and my love for the studio has only grown. I am a senior at Boise High and Treasure Valley Math & Science Center, and I’m the Board Treasurer for One Stone. I love the people, community engagement, and the vibe of openness, growth, and love.
Combining my art and my passion for science, I use my design to raise money for nonprofits, spread awareness of scientific problems, support facts, and inspire viewers. After working on Two Birds’ Kindness Not the Virus campaign, it was a natural choice to enter the JUMP Billboard Contest downtown. With a focus on hope, unity, and gratitude, the community gallery aims to spread love and support during this chaotic, unexpected, and devastating year.
To pre-COVID me, “doing good” would be volunteering at a nonprofit, participating in citizen science endeavors, hugging my Zumba instructor every Monday, thanking my teachers after each class, and holding open the door for strangers. Now, my definition has expanded to beyond the materialistic and in-person activities that previously constituted “doing good.” Other acts, like sending a friend an email, hopping on a surprise party Zoom, painting for charitable donations, and designing art to brighten the days of absolute strangers walking downtown, are all doing good. And as I watch the cases climb in Idaho and the United States, seeing pictures from my own school’s sports teams without masks, and even still continuing recovery from my COVID-19 infection back in March, my heart is torn apart. My testimony helped keep Boise School District buildings closed for a month, but they reopened anyway. My emails to officials about wearing masks have resulted in no action. And it quickly became apparent that my words were falling on deaf ears. So I took to Illustrator. Though the officials and trustees likely didn’t see my art, if it made one person smile, encouraged someone to wear a mask, or even incentivized a single act of kindness, I have succeeded. In a time where every small action counts, let’s make every action a good one.
