Inspire the World: A Kid's Journey to Making a Difference

Sammie Vance is a passionate and dedicated founder, author, stage manager, sister, and daughter born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She is best known for spreading kindness through recycling plastic materials into buddy benches. Sammie loves the idea of reading, writing, and telling stories whether it is written down on a page or brought to life on a stage. But most of all, Sammie loves making people smile.Sammie has been a guest on the Today Show among other television shows, and partnered with companies like Walgreens and UPS who were inspired by her mission. Since the start of this project in 2018, more than 750 of Sammie's Buddy Benches have been deployed across the world. She has been honored to receive numerous awards for her buddy bench project and volunteering efforts. Sammie hopes this book will inspire others to make a difference in this world. This is her first book.

Talitha Shipman (pronounced Tuh-LEE-tha) is a neurodivergent children's book creator from the Midwest. She loves nature, Star Wars, dinosaurs, new art supplies, and walking in the woods near her home, where she finds endless inspiration. Talitha has illustrated many books for kids, including the Sidney Taylor Honor book Everybody Says Shalom by Leslie Kimmelman and the Junior Library Guild-selected chapter book series Astrid The Astronaut by Rie Neal. Talitha lives in Indiana, with her husband, her daughter, and a black-and-white tornado of a French Brittany named Indy.