ANACORTES, Wash., July 25, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The SpokenCoast Project was conceived by Marissa Krupa after her brother and mother were both diagnosed with astrocytoma cancerous tumors two years ago. Marissa's daily life became a struggle, burdened by unforgiving jobs and social groups who expected her to be unaffected. She found little resources available to help cope, which were limited in their scope of care. When her brother, Mickey Krupa, succumbed to the disease in February 2011, Marissa decided to seek answers to the question plaguing her throughout the ordeal: how do some people deal with a life challenge and seem to thrive, while others fall victim to despair?
Marissa created The SpokenCoast Project to explore this question first hand, and as a way to transform her loss from pain to a positive life changing experience. This project is not just about Marissa's personal struggle, but an exploration of how people deal with human suffering. She wants to create a community of hope through shared stories, as she travels the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Chile.
Her journey has two components.
1. Conduct interviews with local people for their personal stories of overcoming life's challenges. View the project trailer.
2. Climb six mountain peaks, building cairn memorials at each summit for her brother and the wider community. A green rock on top of each cairn will indicate it is a SpokenCoast Project memorial.
The SpokenCoast Project will also build a social community online through sites like Facebook and Twitter. Marissa will document her journey through video and written journal, to be developed into a film and book.
About The SpokenCoast Project
We can't always know what life will bring us. Life's surprises come when we least expect it; a gift one day, a disaster the next. It's the challenges and unexpected crises that knock us off balance. They make us feel small, unprepared, unequipped, alone and scared.
At one time or another we all struggle with tragedy. The SpokenCoast Project aims to gather these personal stories of overcoming major challenges to create an empowering resource for us all. Marissa Krupa will travel along the coastline from Alaska to Chile capturing stories of positive transformation through personal hardship, inspiring her to climb 6 mountain peaks for her own transformational journey.
The SpokenCoast Project is an exploration of the transformational power of facing life's unexpected challenges head on. Similar to Dan Savage's "It Gets Better", The SpokenCoast Project is a support system to anyone who feels they can't overcome. Any person who feels alone in facing a major life tragedy can look to The SpokenCoast Project for hope and become part of this community.
Trailer: http://www.spokencoast.org/2011/07/the-spokencoast-project-trailer/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheSpokenCoast
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/thespokencoast