‘The Everybody Club’ takes a trip to Washington, D.C.

In May 2000, the Eden Prairie community was shocked by the death of Carissa Hayen, who died as a result of a car accident. Twenty-one years later, her mother, Linda Hayen, with the help of author Nancy Loewen, would publish “The Everybody Club.” The book’s title comes from a club Carissa made up as a child.

“My daughter started the club when she was young, and her brother has severe disabilities, so she wanted a club where everybody could belong,” Hayen said. “It only lasted a couple of weeks, but she would put all of her stuffed animals in a circle, and they would have these little meetings and she called it ‘The Everybody Club.'”

Loewen and Hayen would connect in 2013, when the process of writing the book began. Loewen said she was drawn to the idea from the moment Hayen pitched it.

“It was just kind of instantaneous,” Loewen said. “As soon as Linda told me about the idea and the name, ‘The Everybody Club,’ I just thought it had a good ring to it, and I could see it being a fun, light book but still having a very meaningful message.”

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The book was self-published in 2021 before a traditional publisher picked it up and re-released it in 2024. Now, “The Everybody Club” is taking its next journey, inspired by a dream Carissa had in high school.

“She went on a trip (to Washington, D.C.) in March of 2000, and when I went to the airport to pick her up, she was just beaming with joy, and I said to her, half-kidding, ‘Well, now that you’ve seen all that, do you think you would want to be a politician?’ and she said ‘Yes,’ immediately. This was her calling,” Hayen said.

Sadly, Carissa died just a few months later, never getting the chance to fulfill that dream. However, last week, Loewen and Hayen packed up 535 copies of “The Everybody Club” and sent them to each member of Congress on Capitol Hill. Hayen says she hopes that, now, a little piece of Carissa will always reside in our nation’s capital.

“Carissa embodied those values throughout her young life,” Loewen said. “There’s a note that Linda wrote that’s in the back of the book, about how she was the kind of person that others would go to when they had conflict or they needed encouragement or comfort.”

While the two of them don’t see this as a political act, they both recognize the important message the book is trying to pass along.

“We’re not trying to make this a political thing, but it kind of does have a little bit of a political edge, reminding our people that represent us in Washington that everybody needs to be cared about, thought about (and) supported,” Hayen said. 

“The book is about the idea of cooperation, and I feel like that is something that, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, that’s a message that applies to everybody,” Loewen said.

Now the duo simply waits, with the books scheduled to arrive in Washington around March 21. In this moment of calm, Hayen reflects on how far the book has come since the fateful meeting in 2013.

“(The book) embodies her. It embodies her spirit. … I told Nancy from the very beginning all I wanted to do was create the book and hold it,” Hayen said. “It’s very much about my daughter. It’s very much about her getting out into the world because she had a lot to contribute and didn’t have the chance to.”