A challenge we’d faced year after year was how to honor the diversity in motherhood. In previous years, we passed out carnations and kept Mother’s Day commentary generic. I pitched gathering a group of people who represented unique viewpoints on motherhood including loss, adoption, toddler moms, single moms, soon-to-be moms, etc. We hosted the LIVE on our Facebook page (our largest platform) and spent the previous weeks marketing and introducing each panelist with the goal of fostering a space where moms of any type could feel seen and heard.

I conceived of, pitched, chose and communicated with panelists, created content and scheduled social media promotion. I chose and prepped a host so I could be free to serve as tech support and moderator in the comments during the live. To ensure a smooth start, I prepared a list of questions and filtered out the top audience questions as the participation boomed. I provided a wrap up for all our panelists and a report of it’s success for our staff.

This live Facebook event reached over 50K people (1250% above our follower count) and broke our records to be our top post. It was more viewed than our popular Easter service posts. Anecdotally, we heard a record number of people say they felt seen and honored on Mother’s Day when they typically felt left out of the conversation about motherhood. Our Women’s Ministry saw an increase in participation and many mothers began friendships after finding each other during the live panel.