published in Grief, Workplace Safety by Maryanne | December 3, 2008 | No Comment
December 2, 2008
For Immediate Release
Local Author Gives Hope to Bringing Emergency Services Personnel Home Safe
Calgary, AB — Car crashes, drunk drivers, fires, abuse and violence all increase during the holiday season and emergency services personnel (ESP) and their families are often looking for a little hope amidst the tragedies and dangers they face.
“During the holidays, celebrations can often be overshadowed with concern when family members are out on emergency calls. It can be very difficult to cope with those feelings,” explains Maryanne Pope, CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and no stranger to loss. Her husband was Cst John Petropoulos of the Calgary Police Service. John died after falling through a false ceiling during the investigation of a break and enter complaint, as there was no safety railing in place.
Pope’s company produces workplace safety public service announcements, educational films and plays, and now a new book to draw the public’s attention to the role they can play in helping ensure ESP make it home safely after every shift. Pope is hoping she can inspire optimism and create awareness this Christmas by sharing the intimate details of her personal loss with her book A Widow’s Awakening.
One reader, married to a firefighter, wrote: “This unforgettable book made me feel that although there are dangers faced by emergency workers, everyone has the same right to safety. The threats emergency workers face can be reduced.”
An engaging and powerful read, A Widow’s Awakening is an uplifting story that awakens hope for those who may need it this Christmas. 20% of the proceeds are donated to the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund, a non-profit organization that raises public awareness about workplace safety for ESP. The Fund focuses on both building and traffic safety, including the ‘Slow Down and Give Us Room to Work’ message to motorists.
Maryanne Pope is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions Inc. and the Board Chair of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. Her products are available online at www.pinkgazelle.com, www.jpmf.ca, and her book is available at amazon.com and in select bookstores. To view the book’s promo kit, please click here.
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To book an interview,
please contact:
Ian Wilson
Managing Director
John Petropoulos Memorial Fund
403-891-4269
ian@jpmf.ca
www.jpmf.ca
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published in Achieving Your Dreams by Maryanne | November 26, 2008 | No Comment
November 26th, 2008
FOCUS!
Once upon a time there was a chameloen. It’s owner, to keep it warm, placed it on a piece of scotch plaid. It died of exhaustion. – Jean Cocteau, 1919
I was at a traffic safety conference last week and one of the speakers was nineteen year old Darin Wood. Darin had been an outstanding hockey player until a horrific car crash changed that two years ago. He’s in a wheelchair now and will be for life. The vehicle he was a passenger in was going 160km/hr when it went over some train tracks and careened out of control. It rolled over several times and Darin was thrown through the front window, landing dozens of feet away from the car. It was a miracle he survived.
However, what struck me most about Darin’s presentation was his focus. He told us how, weeks after his crash, he was sent to a rehabilitation centre and the first thing he asked his doctor was “Where’s my plan? What are my daily, weekly and monthly goals? We need a strategy to get me out of here . . . because I’m going to grad.”
I turned to the woman sitting next to me in the conference room and whispered, “How the heck can a nineteen year old kid be so focused?”
“Oh,” she says, matter-of-factly, “that’s because of his sports background. He understands the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve them. Why would it be any different now that he’s in a wheelchair?”
I do know how to set goals and achieve them. It took me eight years to get my first book, A Widow’s Awakening, done – but it did get done. However, the truth of the matter is that since the release of the book in September 2008, I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, dashing from book signing to book signing to media interviews to the hospital to visit my mom, to her apartment to feed her cat, to one social engagement or business meeting to another. My phone rings constantly and two days ago there were 275 unopened e-mails in my in-box. Is this how I want to run my business? My life?
No.
So I’ve taken a lesson from Darin and am now getting back to the basics of setting daily, weekly and monthly goals for myself and – what a concept – actually focusing on achieving them. And the next time I catch myself saying yes to yet another demand on my time, or allowing myself to be distracted, or procrastinating on an important task, I will think of Darin struggling to regain the use of his arms or preparing for his next presentation to school kids about the dangers of speeding – and I will remind myself about what’s important. For without focus and follow-through, I’m really just spinning my wheels.
Maryanne
published in Background to PGP by admin | November 1, 2008 | No Comment
November 1st, 2008
Hello and welcome to the very first blog from Pink Gazelle Productions Inc (PGP). We’re brand new at this blogging thing so please bear with us as we stumble our way through!
First off, thank you so much for stopping by the PGP website and hopefully taking a look around. Our big news at the moment is the release of A Widow’s Awakening, a creative non-fiction book by me, Maryanne Pope. Please click here, if you’d like to see the book’s promo kit – and here for a list of book signings as well as which bookstores are currently carrying the book. Or you can always order on-line 
My husband, John Petropoulos, was a Calgary police officer who passed away in the line of duty on Sept 29th, 2000. John was investigating a break and enter complaint at a warehouse when he fell through a false ceiling and succumbed to brain injuries. There was no safety railing in place to warn him – or anyone else – of the danger. We were both 32 at the time.
After John’s death, several of his police recruit classmates started the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund, which is now a non-profit society that raises awareness about workplace safety for emergency services personnel – police, fire, EMS & tow truck drivers.
And after John’s death, I got to work on writing what would become A Widow’s Awakening. It took me eight years to get it where it – and I – needed to be. But it’s done and finding its way in the world! So far, the response has been overwhelming, particularly from other people who are struggling through the grieving process and trying to come to terms with the loss of a loved one.
20% of the proceeds from the sale of the books go to the JPMF.
About a year and a half after John’s death, I started my company, Pink Gazelle Productions Inc – mainly just to handle my writing expenses. That the company has now produced an award-winning documentary called Whatever Floats Your Boat…Perspectives on Motherhood (about the ‘to be or not to be…a mom?’ decision) and education kit, as well as several play scripts, is rather mind-boggling…but good!
So that’s enough for our first blog. I hope you enjoy the PGP website and I look forward to hearing feedback on our site and creative works.
Until next time, take care!
Maryanne Pope
CEO, Pink Gazelle Productions Inc
Board Chair, John Petropoulos Memorial Fund