Today for the Women's History Month project, we are celebrating this fantastic woman
Meet Danielle Evans-Cole, 49, wife, mother of 2, gardener, writer, editor and attorney.
"If I accept the sunshine and warmth, then I must also accept the thunder and lightning." - Kahlil Gibran
Danielle Evans-Cole grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts. As the youngest of three daughters, Danielle was born into a family that was already grappling with family violence, substance abuse, and mental illness. As a survivor of childhood abuse and trauma, Danielle developed both resilience and independence as she learned to navigate a complicated and challenging upbringing.
Despite these hurdles, Danielle developed a love of nature and the outdoors while spending her early summers camping in the White Mountains. Her love of Judaism and her strong Jewish identity came from her maternal grandfather, her Poppy Sylvin, who taught her to be proud of being a Jew, and to always stand up to hate and discrimination.
After graduating high school, Danielle enrolled as a dual Family Studies and Women’s Studies major at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. At UNH, Danielle was trained as a Sexual Harrassement & Rape Prevention (SHARPP) victim advocate, led Take Back the Night walks, testified in front of the New Hampshire State Senate on campus violence legislation, and interned in the New Hampshire State Senate as a legislative aide.
At UNH, Danielle fell in love with the New Hampshire Seacoast, but she also met and fell in love with her future husband, Alex Cole. Danielle graduated UNH, summa cum laude, in 1994, and that fall enrolled in the Northeastern University School of Law. She graduated law school in 1997, after working co-ops at private law firms, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimnation, and Greater Boston Legal Services. After law school, Danielle worked as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the MA Department of Children and Families (DCF) representing the State in child abuse and neglect cases.
Danielle married Alex in 1999, and they eventually settled in Chelmsford, MA where they bought a fixer upper as their first home. Twenty-two years later they still live in that house, and always seem to be in the middle of yet another home improvement project. More importantly she was able to break the cycle from her own childhood, and create a safe and stable home and family life.
After leaving DCF, Danielle worked as a legal editor for LexisNexis where she was named Employee of the Year in 2004. That same year her son, Spencer, was born, and in 2007 her daughter Maddie was born.
Shortly before Maddie was born, Danielle switched to consulting for a more flexible schedule. She was a Senior Consultant at Clarity Consulting Partners, specializing in grant writing, and nonprofit management and development.
Danielle later decided to stay home full-time with both of her children. During those years she was elected and served as a Chelmsford Town Meeting Representative for 15 years, and served on many committees in both her children’s schools and her Temple. What she is most proud of is serving as the Co-Chair of the South Row School Playground Committee where she worked with an amazing group of parent and staff volunteers and the Chelmsford Department of Public Works to raise over $100,000 to fund a new playground for her children’s elementary school. The project included hiring a playground contractor, recruiting and managing volunteers, playground design, and coordinating the site work and playground build.
In 2020, the unexpected quarantine allowed Danielle to finally return to her passions for both fiction and creative nonfiction writing and gardening. Classes at GrubStreet in Boston went virtual via Zoom, and she enrolled in many writing courses. In 2021, Danielle was accepted into a six-month intensive creative nonfiction writing program where she is working on a memoir about living through and surviving childhood trauma. As for gardening, the quarantine allowed her to create a kitchen garden, as well as other smaller shrub and perennial gardens.
Danielle also loves to practice yoga and meditation, and has dabbled in storytelling by getting up on the stage at two Moth Story Slams and smaller local storytelling events.
Being a mother is a healing journey for Danielle as she watches her two fantastic teens grow towards adulthood. Without question what she values most is the family she has created where there is safety, nurturing, and unconditional love. Some of her favorite family memories are the summer weeks they all spend together at the beach in Ocean Park, Maine, and all of them including their two cats, Pax and Luna, curling up on the couch for family movie and game night.
In June 2022, Danielle turns 50, and is working towards her goal of becoming a published writer. She is also shaping the next stage of her career where she plans to combine and leverage her writing, leadership, organizational, project management, and public speaking/advocacy skills.
Here is another one of Danielle's favorite quotes:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
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You can follow her @plotandbloom on Instagram and Facebook, where she combines her love of writing, gardening, and nature photography.
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Thank you, Danielle, for sharing your story with us all! You are an inspiration!
#whm #womenshistorymonth #womanoftheday #womensupportingwomen #mainephotographer
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