Pagan EdNet began with a necklace, a school office, and a two-page fact sheet. This is how three volunteers became a national network.
How It Started
In the spring of 2001, a twelve-year-old student in a small Midwestern school district was told to remove a pentacle necklace or tuck it out of sight. Other students in the same school wore religious jewelry without comment. The student's parents asked to meet with the principal, who was willing to listen but had never heard of the religion and had nothing reliable to read about it.
A family friend, school librarian Margit Aldane, went looking for something short, accurate, and calm that the family could hand across the desk. She found books written for practitioners and pamphlets written by opponents, and very little written for a busy administrator. So she wrote two pages herself, with the help of hospital chaplain Rev. Desmond Carrow and paralegal Paloma Whitlock. The principal read it, the district revised its dress code guidance within the month, and the student wore the necklace for the rest of the year.
Word traveled. By midsummer the three had received more than forty requests for copies from other families, and several from teachers. At the autumn equinox, September 22, 2001, they met at a kitchen table with six other volunteers and agreed to keep going. That meeting is the date we count as our founding.
Timeline
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2001
Nine volunteers meet at the autumn equinox and form a working group to write and distribute educational fact sheets about Pagan religions.
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2002
The group incorporates as a nonprofit under the name Pagan Education and Dialogue Network, elects its first board of directors, and adopts the statement of purpose still in use today.
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2003
The first edition of the Plain Facts fact sheet series is published: six titles, mailed on request to school counselors, public libraries, and hospital chaplaincy offices.
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2005
Paloma Whitlock organizes the Rights Desk, a team of trained volunteers who answer requests for help from people facing religious discrimination. It handles 41 requests in its first year.
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2008
The Speakers Bureau is launched with a first training class of fourteen volunteers. Its first presentation is given to a county library staff.
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2011
Rev. Desmond Carrow convenes the first Seat at the Table interfaith roundtable, bringing together clergy and lay leaders of seven religious communities. The roundtable becomes a quarterly event.
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2013
Interfaith Representative Training begins as a ten-week course for Pagans serving on local interfaith councils and chaplaincy committees.
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2014
The Chaplaincy and Institutional Access Project begins offering briefings to hospitals, hospices, and correctional facilities on the religious needs of Pagans in their care.
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2016
Co-founder Rev. Desmond Carrow dies after a long illness. The board establishes the Carrow Fellowship, which each year helps two graduates of Interfaith Representative Training travel to a regional interfaith gathering.
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2017
The first edition of A Guide for Journalists is published in response to steady requests from newsrooms for help with terminology and sourcing.
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2018
Paloma Whitlock retires as Rights Desk coordinator after thirteen years. The Rights Desk establishes a Legal Advisory Panel of volunteer attorneys to review its published guidance.
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2019
Founding director Margit Aldane retires and is named director emerita. The board appoints Miriam Castellane as executive director.
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2020
All presentations, trainings, and roundtables move online. Attendance at interfaith roundtables triples, and online delivery becomes a permanent part of every program.
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2022
The first annual Holiday Accommodation Calendar, covering 2023, is published to help schools and employers plan for Pagan religious observances.
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2025
The sixth edition of the Plain Facts series is released, now twelve titles. The Rights Desk answers 318 requests, the most in its history.
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2026
The Speakers Bureau delivers its 1,000th presentation in May. At the autumn equinox, Pagan EdNet marks its twenty-fifth anniversary.
What Has Not Changed
The original two-page fact sheet has been revised many times, but its opening sentence is the same one Margit Aldane wrote in 2001: "The people described here are your neighbors, and this page is meant to help you know them." We still write for the busy person across the desk, and we still measure success by problems that end quietly.
Read about the people who lead this work today on the Board and Staff page, or see our anniversary announcement.