Embedded Files
Timely recent essay: "Who is Un-American?"
Click to hear a local hero share who they will recognize with a SHOCC award! (Check back for new video releases!)
Filmed, directed, and edited by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and local hero Prof. Jay Rosenstein.
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."
- Alice Walker
Gorgeous art by brave & brilliant Jenny Southlynn
SHOCC is Summer of Solidarity’s 2026 Solidarity Hero of Champaign County (SHOCC) project.
SHOCC calls on community members to name, recognize, and celebrate our caring leaders.
On this website, you will find a SHOCC certificate to download for free.
Print it out and give it to a local hero!
While supplies last, beautifully-printed free SHOCC certificates are also available for pickup at five treasured CU local businesses: Art Coop & Spineless Books (dt Urbana); Circles Boutique, Exile on Main Street, & Fire Doll Studio (dt Champaign).
SHOCC is not a competition.
It is an unleashing of gratitude, goodness, & abundance.
Join the Summer of Solidarity in uplifting our many, many local leaders!
Free SHOCC certificates (and so much more) available at wonderful Spineless Books!
YOU will choose.
Community members will give out the SHOCC awards.
You know who shows solidarity to you and to others. Identify them. Recognize them. Celebrate them.
You will hand the SHOCC certificate directly to the person you wish to honor, and you will let them know how their care has impacted you and made you and/or our community stronger.
You do not need anyone to review what you believe, or to further vet what you already know. You know what you know, and this matters. No one will make this choice beyond you.
You will be naming our 2026 SHOCC winners based on who you feel shows solidarity in our community.
Please do so early and often.
1. Choose a local!
While ancestors & deities are lovely, 2026 SHOCC awards should go to living people who either live or once lived in Champaign County.
Focus here, now.
2. Explain how this solidarity hero impacts you!
When giving the SHOCC award certificate, also provide a "nomination statement." In this, awardees should be told exactly how they have shown impactful solidarity through their care and support, bravery, advocacy, brilliance, mentoring, bridge-building, welcome, accompaniment, respect, high expectations, patience, challenge, vision, collaboration, trailblazing, kindness, love, and/or any other caring effort that reaches beyond personal interest to humanize and uplift others.
In other words, tell them why they deserve this.
Your nomination statement can be told to the SHOCC winner verbally, or it can be put in writing and given with the certificate.
No matter the form, the strongest nomination statements raise at least one real-life example of solidarity you have observed from your awardee.
That said, if at all possible, write. Writing matters.
Written words spark fire that get us through the coldest of times.
(Note: Do not use AI for this. AI's slick, smug confidence hides that is empty, soulless, and ugly. Don't be duped. Those pushing it commonly push logics painting youth and workers as inept and undeserving to hoard profits. AI use can erode cognitive, creative, and critical thinking abilities. It also undermines people's belief in themself, carrying water for authoritarians and other tyrants. Claim your spirit. Take the time to write from the heart, and encourage others to do the same. It is the best way to earnestly express what you feel, and to say what this person means to you. That is the goal. Glossy AI could never do this. Only you can. Please do.)
Write as much as you want. But don't let this step overwhelm and stop you. "Thank you for caring" and "Thanks for being here for me" are both powerful statements. Either can be more than enough.
Write to let your SHOCC honoree know why they are a solidarity hero!
3. Collectively recognize a shared local hero!.
Multiple signature lines were added to the SHOCC certificate to allow for group honoring. Use them!
Reach out to others who also appreciate your local solidarity hero, and work with them to name this Solidarity Hero of Champaign County.
Get creative! Make it fun! Use SHOCC to bring people together to see and channel goodness.
Once named--provided the honoree is so willing--, host a SHOCC celebration to collaboratively honor the awardee. Have a public presentation of the SHOCC certification! Plan for nominees to read their nomination statement, and to share how the SHOCC awardee impacted them! Let the awardee be showered with support! Remember and celebrate together!
Work together to affirm bonds while bringing to life local history.
Organize! Connect! Build community as you honor a local leader!
4. Let people know about SHOCC awardees!
* Frame and hang your SHOCC certificate!
- The SHOCC certificate is 8.5x11. Choose a frame this size, or use 11x14 if you plan to mat. Frame it, and give it to the awardee along with your letter!
* Tell others!
- Write a letter to the editor about your SHOCC awardee! Help us know and keep our history.
- Have an in-person celebration with those who also celebrate this local hero!
- Talk about your SHOCC awardee!
- Ask friends who they would nominate! Tell them about SHOCC!
- Post about your SHOCC award recipient on social media to share how they show solidarity! (but limit your time! Beyond allowing us to connect, my research documents social media's powerful role as a stealthy cultural legitimator of neoliberal narratives that criminalize common people and protect the powerful. While using social media, we are pushed ideas that undermine our power without our awareness. Please log off; do not let it take your attention. It is your most precious commodity. Please see new suns.)
Our histories are being censored, rewritten, whitewashed, and erased.
Don't keep these local leaders a secret. Shine the light! And pass it on.
Spread the word!
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Download a SHOCC Certificate!
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Pick up a SHOCC Certificate!
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Beautifully printed SHOCC certificates are available for free at five treasured CU local businesses. Click down arrow on map to learn more.
Click image to expand
Visit one of these 5 beloved CU local businesses, and pick up a free SHOCC certificate printed by Dixon Graphics to give to your local solidarity hero!
Available now, and while supplies last.
Even after certificates run out, support these and other spaces that advance local leaders while making CU lively and lovely!
Once gone, certificates will still be available for free download on this page.
Beautiful Circles Boutique in Champaign has SHOCC certificates at the desk!
SHOCC certificates at wonderful Spineless Books in Urbana!
SHOCC certificate border artwork features Big Bluestem, the state grass of Illinois. It grows throughout Champaign County. It is so beautiful. Look for it!
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Ok. I have a SHOCC certificate! Now what?
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I. First, grab a pen you like, and fill out the certificate!
Here's how:
II. Once you have filled out the certificate, explain why you have chosen to honor this person!
It can be challenging to find the right words, but take the time to try.
How has this person impacted you? Write it down, and let them know.
You can do it!
Expressing feelings is part of claiming our humanity. The more you do it, the easier it gets. And this type of gratitude has many positive ties to health.
You may not realize the power of your heart-felt appreciation. Please know that it is needed, especially in this moment. Don't wait for a funeral to thank someone, or to say how they impacted you. Tell them now, while they can hear it and also have little more wind beneath their wings at a time they are actively (and super unjustly) being silenced, shamed, and deflated. They need it.
Point 2 above gives helpful tips on these "nomination statements." Some great examples are provided above and below. Please let them know why they are a solidarity hero to you!
Use a SOS Note of Solidarity for this step, if you wish!
III. Last step: Give the SHOCC certificate & "nomination statement" to the person you want to honor!
Caring is a skill. It is not gendered. It is not innately part of some people and not others. It is understanding and responding to the environment. It is a talent. It is a gift. It is a skill.
Beyond this, it is the bravest form of leadership.
Hand off the SHOCC certificate and your words to this local hero to recognize and thank them, and to show them that you care. Their caring matters.
Do not skip this step!
Use SHOCC to uplift caring people who have had a positive impact on your life.
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SHOCC sitings
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Your turn!
Give them a SHOCC award!
Grab a SHOCC certificate after enjoying the typewriter! (A community written novel is blooming!)
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SHOCC Q&A
SHOCC Q&A
Q: I don’t live in CU anymore. Do I have to hand the SHOCC certificate to someone in person in order to participate?
A: While face-to-face gathering is important for good living, we can not all (or always) meet up in person. This is not needed to recognize someone for a SHOCC award.
Mail the certificate and a letter explaining how they have impacted you! Email it! It still counts. Just get it to them.
Don’t miss the chance to honor them.
Let them know!
Q: Do I get to give a SHOCC award only once? Do I have to choose my one ultimate hero?
A: NO WAY!
You can recognize as many people as you wish with a SHOCC award.
Download as many certificates as you want, and give them to people who make a difference. Do not limit yourself.
Give a SHOCC award to anyone who shows admirable solidarity with others.
This is celebration. We are fortunate to have many caring local leaders. Recognize, appreciate, thank, and celebrate them! They are our visionaries. They are our leaders in a leaderfull world. They stand with us. They are us.
This is not a competition. SHOCC is an unleashing of caring abundance, awareness, and gratitude as joyful resistance.
Welcome the abundance. And keep fueling it.
Q: Someone else wants to give the person I honor a SHOCC award. Does this mean I should not give them one?
A: People who inspire deserve to hear about it. Those who uplift many people deserve to be celebrated by many people.
Please let them know you appreciate them.
It does not matter who else does.
Shine the light! And pass it on for others to do so, as well.
Again, embrace the abundance.
Q: What is solidarity?
A: The Summer of Solidarity coalition defines solidarity as care and support, courage, advocacy, mentoring, bridge-building, smarts, welcome, accompaniment, respect, high expectations, patience, challenge, vision, collaboration, trailblazing, kindness, love, and/or any other caring effort that reaches beyond personal interest to humanize and uplift others.
It is putting people over profit.
It is having the integrity to stand with those who are vulnerable.
It is being brave and brilliant enough to love your neighbor, and to say no to thugs.
It is claiming voice while elevating others.
It is having the skill and backbone needed to nurture.
Solidarity is not blind allegiance. When used as such (and it is used as such), it needs to be called out as hollow platitude.
Solidarity is essential to community, and to life.
Q: Do I send you my nomination and wait to see who you choose, or what?
A: Nope.
You choose.
We have the strength to uplift. We do not have to wait for others to give us affirmation or approval. Why? We should not be giving our power over to others.
As brilliant June Jordan stated: "We are the ones we have been waiting for."
In a time of cruelty and injustice, defend care. Cherish and honor those brave enough to show it. Do not wait for others to notice our cultural caretakers. Uplift the uplifters.
We have the power.
Name someone a Solidarity Hero of Champaign County!
(Pssst: All awards are made up! SHOCC is pulling back the veil on this to remind us that we know what we know, and we should be naming and celebrating those who do the thankless work of helping us. We have every right to honor others. We do not have to have our opinion vetted by anyone. We do not have to ask permission. You choose.)
Q: Can kids give someone a SHOCC award?
A: Yes!
No matter our age, it is important to tell people they matter to us.
It is a hard time to be a kid in the U.S.
According to foundational resilience research, young people fare best when they have supportive people in their lives who they can trust and honestly turn to. But we do a very poor job of creating trustworthy support systems for youth in this country.
This goes well beyond individual effort.
Economic, social, and cultural systems actively work against our kids. Predatory efforts in the U.S. profit by criminalizing youth, by shackling them with debt, by denying their reproductive realities, by targeting advocacy, by undermining their rights, by redirecting their frustration to bigoted efforts that weaken their humanity and further their marginality. And, in many ways, they are incentived to do so.
We have a lot of work to do to support young people in the U.S.
Beyond this, encouraging kids to see and actively appreciate those who care for them and genuninely have their backs helps to nurture essential relationships that can help them persist through difficulty. It also fosters gratitude, which we all need to persevere.
Kids are commonly left out of community efforts. This should not happen. Don't let it happen here.
Please help kids name, recognize, and celebrate those who stand with them. Make it a group effort, with everyone telling the group who they have named, and why! Inform teachers, parents, and others who work with kids about SHOCC!
And, of course, use SHOCC to recognize youth who are local solidarity heroes. Uplift!
SHOCC welcomes and encourages kid involvement.
Q: How long do I have to name someone a Solidarity Hero of Champaign County?
A: You have until December 31, 2026 to name SHOCC awardees.
But plrsdr consider naming someone as soon as possible.
We are currently being starved of care to see how much we can take, and force-fed injustice to seed isolation and impotence. Please continue to call out injustice, but do not let yourself get taken in by the car crash. Focus your attention on those that uplift. Reach out to them to let them know that they have helped you.
Remember community, and connect with those who had and/or have your back through SHOCC and other efforts.
You will need it in the days ahead. Those you admire will need it. We need it.
Get on it!
Q: But isn't it cringe to tell someone how you feel?
A: I mean, no? Maybe? But, really, who cares?
One of the best gifts of living is being human enough to feel and to use this to be earnest with others.
While some will try to deceive you into self-driven isolation with buzzwords and bogus trends like "cringe," don't fall for it.
Let yourself have what is needed to stay human.
Taking personal space is essential, but connecting with people adds vibrance to life. It is also required to fight tyranny, which knows that isolated people are the easiest to manipulate and terrorize. Beyond this, emotions are beautiful and important. Sharing them comes from admirable honesty. It is tenderness. It is a way to be caring.
Appreciation honors you and those you value.
This is never shameful. It should never be disparaged.
Reclaim the narrative.
Welcome goodness. Resist hateful logics. Care. Act.
Our world needs it.
You deserve it.
Q: Who will win the SHOCC award?
A: Many, many, many, many, many, many, many people.
The Solidarity Hero of Champaign County project is not a competition.
It is a releasing of gratitude and of abundance.
We all have access to this right now.
Please embrace it.
There are new suns. Shine the light!
And pass it on.
Q: Why SHOCC?
A: Isolation and impotence fuel fascism. Through the SHOCC project, SOS aims to help locals remember and focus attention on people in their lives who they are grateful for as they reach out to express overt appreciation, strengthening supportive connections. SHOCC also works to challenge the bigotry, denigration, and hate of authoritarianism, kakistocracy, and white nationalism.
Caring, community-minded people and their efforts are being unjustly disparaged and criminalized in the United States. SOS calls on all of us to see and to share, in Octavia Butler’s words, “new suns.”
It is past time to reclaim the narrative, to correct the record, and to uplift caring local leaders who nurture our community.
Q: What is Summer of Solidarity?
A: Summer of Solidarity (SOS) is a CU coalition of artist-organizers founded in 2025. We showcase exemplary local leadership while catalyzing uplift of community-minded people and efforts that make our world better for future generations, despite the odds.
The Summer of Solidarity coalition invites the community to recognize and celebrate our powerfully caring leaders who make us stronger by putting people over profit, and by bravely challenging violence that targets, endangers, and criminalizes people seeking rights, respect, and justice.
Who helped lead the way for you?
Give them a Solidarity Hero of Champaign County (SHOCC) award!
Join in to honor our many local leaders who stand with the people of Champaign County to help us be and grow.
"Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground;
"Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground;
it always is its result."
it always is its result."
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SHOCC media coverage
SHOCC media coverage
(Who is helping to spread the word? Support local allies!)
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Summer of Solidarity
There are new suns. Shine the light! And pass it on.
* Love your neighbor * Remember our history * Say no to thugs *
http://tinyurl.com/SOScu26
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