Wednesday, January 31, 2007 is also known as Inspire your heart with the arts day. I got this information from Chase's Calendar of Events. For more information on Chase's, see Alison's blog from 1/29/07. Apparently, January 31 has been Inspire your heart with the arts day for the last six years! It sounded like a great idea to me especially since February 1st starts American Heart Month and, of course, February 14th is Valentine's Day! Then I started wondering how all of these special days came to be. According to Chase's, most of these special days come from "national organizations who use their observences for public outreach and to plan specific events." Also, "the editoral staff of Chase's includes a special day, week or month based on the authority of the organization observing it, how many years it has been observed, its uniqueness and a variety of other factors."

That was interesting, but it still didn't completely answer my question. How did Chase's find out about these special days? Then, as I was looking through Chase's, I discovered a form on the back page that anyone could copy and fill out. It was a form to be used to submit a new entry to Chase's for the upcoming edition. My search for more information took me to the website for Chase's. There I found a link to submit an entry and much more detailed information for doing this. What I didn't find was a form; that is coming soon. The additional information did reassure me that not just anyone could make up a day and submit it to be commemorated as a special day.

So, who or what organization sponsored Inspire your heart with the arts day? At the end of each entry, Chase's provides information for contacting the person or organization sponsoring each special day. In this case, the sponsor was Reverend Jane Howard Feldman. Contact information for her was provided, as well as her website address. Between Frolic with fairies and the angel art gallery , I found Inspire your heart with the arts.

Check it out. I have to say, "Chase's, this was not quite what I expected!"