Martha and I feel both old and young at this point. Worn out, but hopefully renewing. We’ve got a bunch of kids—10 so far. We are missing some teeth, we go see the doctor more, but all in all not much to complain about. We live in Utah, in Salem. We found each other at a little hole in the wall basement college named after George Wythe, founded by Oliver and Rachel DeMille in Cedar City in Southern Utah in 1992. Aside from our parents and ancestors, an introduction would not be complete without referencing the effect Oliver and Rachel’s work had on us over more than 2 decades as we have begun learning the liberal arts and deepening our understanding of people and history.
This path toward and with social change has been a fascinating personal ride and seems to just be in its early stages, the first turns, climbs and dips of a roller coaster as it were, and all of the emotions of expectation as we see the likely road ahead. We are in a sense riding with the whole world down this path of the post industrial revolution.
Martha and my journey has been one of what might be called an entrepreneurship of ideas. We have attempted so many launchings of businesses, with many failures and small successes, each attempt seems to dovetail into a new exploration. The hardship of one budding business providing the manure fertilized ground for the struggle with the next idea. We are happy to be on this path of discovery and perhaps we will now hopefully have time to experiment with the results of a more complete version of social change as we implement the ideas that have now coalesced into the John And Abigail Center For Social Change.
Concepts and/or start-up businesses timeline culminating in the www.JohnAndAbigail.com website:
- Educational Forms Foundation 1998
- Cincinnatus Academy 1999
- Simulations Center 2000
- 3D Relations 2001
- Participant in founding of the Idaho Leadership Academy 2001
- Beginnings of social Change-U 2003 and the underpinnings of the City Plat Campus
- John and Abigail Academy 2005
- Social Change Studio 2005
- Elocution 360 2006
- Elections 360 2006
- Peacefield Farm CSA 2007
- Dating Shift 2008
- Billions In-between
- Participated in founding of Abigail’s Oven bakery 2009
- Participated in conceptualizing Pandemic Action And Awareness Network 2009
- LifeCast app 2010
- 2012 “3 Traditions” from “The New Visual Tradition and Coming Shift In Democracy” senior thesis write up
- 2014 We contributed in a small way to the NewVista model working for David Hall significantly impacting my scope of understanding regarding social change
- 2015 Abigail’s Oven 2.0
- Culture Cafe 2017
- John And Abigail Center For Social Change 2018
- Capacity For Change 2018
- Million Dreams Conference 2019 (with Conference 360 application)
- Hearts To Children 2019
- Family Academy 2020
Q & A: What would you like to know more about Allen and Martha?
