Last week I had an initiative called Virtual Steem Dinner Challenge - Let's have Some Fun!, with the purpose of encouraging engagement on Steem, trying to bring people together. Today I saw @theycallmedan's post about another great initiative called Who Do I Follow on Steem & Why and I decided to join as it's a very good one. You should join too as we need these posts to make the community stronger.

Has anyone on Steem left an impact on you? Changed your life for the better? Made you laugh or cry, smile and cheer? Are they still around? Are they active? If not, do you miss them? Have you tried to contact them?
Please select 3 or more Steemians you follow & write a whole post; with why these people matter to you. source

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At this point I'm not sure it'll be three people but along the way I'll see how many I'm going to name.

Denise, @dswigle

First of all I'd like to name my long time friend Denise, @dswigle, who's running the #MarketFriday challenge on Steem and who's a wonderful person. I know her from another platform, way before I came on Steem. We had a lot of fun there, actually there was a circle of people who I met here on Steem as I've registered later. What is special about this challenge is that it makes you pay attention to everything around you and forces you to always look for new markets, new products so you can come up with something new and unique.

I used to go to craft fairs but have never thought one day I would come home with 300 - 400 photos taken in a couple of hour in order to capture everything they are selling. Now you may think this is stupid but in fact it's not. Writing a post each week makes me research techniques used to create those products and write about tradition.

This challenge is in fact a learning curve for me as I'm learning by writing and documenting my post and also by going through the posts of other steemians participating in the challenge. Just by reading their posts you can learn a lot about what people are selling at different parts of the world. You get to meet crafters art that you would not have otherwise.

The challenge is going on from some time, at least two years without struggling. I've seen other challenges come and go over the two year period I'm on steem but never #MarketFriday.

And the best part of it and the key to success is her devotion to visit, read, reblog and comment every post that is participating in the contest! She takes the time to read each posts and leave a very detailed comment that is longer that some posts. She's a real community builder, the success of her challenge confirms it. For me, she's a real role model. She's not here to chase crypto but to build a community by helping people find something to write abut and also bringing people together by that.

Thanks to her I'm paying more attention to these markets and always trying to explain in details how these are products are made and also give a historical background when writing about old, traditional products, so people who are reading my posts can learn more about the culture. You'll be amazed how many people say they have never seen such products and that they like it. That's the meaning and the purpose of it.

Lena And Katie, aka @lenasveganliving and @plantstoplanks

Two amazing people that I must mention when I'm writing this post. @lenasveganliving is also an old friend of mine from another platform who's started the Steemit Fruits And Veggies Monday Challenge. I'd say she's a magician, based on what she can do with just a few ingredients. I'm not a vegan, not even vegetarian but I'm happy to be part of the community, participatin every time I can and learning new recipes each week.

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She has started the contest and has managed to create a large group of people that has grown into a very strong community. What is even more admirable, when she had to take a step back due to health reasons, another amazing Steemian called Katie, aka @plantstoplanks has stepped in, took over and ran the challenge. I truly admire her too for what she's doing. These two amazing women have managed to keep together the community with the help of the other members of course.

Shame on me, I'm not participating very often, more during the gardening season when I am posting about the garden, pickles and jams I'm making, trying to help people with tips and tricks but I still like to consider myself a member of the community and support them every way I can.

These two amazing ladies know how to motivate and bring people together. They have built a very strong community that is run by the @vegansofsteemit account.

@steemmatt

He's a different influencer as he has no idea how much I admire him. I've communicated with him a few times but can't say we're friends, unless you take it in the "social media friends" sense.

855 Steem Earned In 2 Days!! 10 Lbs Of Curb-Recycled Legos Sold For 340 Steem For My 2nd Steem Sale!

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I have found out about him by reading another Steemian's post a year or so ago and since then I'm reading every post of his. He's not only a very good motivation to pay more attention to reusing and recycling but he also took this to a whole new level.

Steem is considered a blogging platform that rewards people with Steem but it can be much more than that. Commerce on Steem is still at the early stage, there's one platform that you can buy and sell digital content (I'm going to be using it soon) but other than that there's not much going on. @steemmatt has shown us how you can connect the unwanted products with those who would appreciate it and want it. It's the most amazing example not only because he has managed to sell something for Steem but also because he salvages what shouldn't have been thrown away in the first place. Not many are doing this and not many are willing to own it up as they think it's not "cool". He has shown us it's "cool" and even necessary.

I'm encouraging you to read the buyer's post and see for yourself what I'm talking about My largest purchase directly with STEEM yet! LEGO!!!! <3 you @steemmatt!

If you can't figure out the meaning of the story, let me tell you in a few words. First @steemmatt has rescued some totally good toys that would have gone to waste as the previous owner carelessly threw them away. He obviously knew there's a market for this and instead of listing the sale on some auction site, he took a decision and listed in on Steem. He not only salvaged the toys but made someone, actually two people happy by selling them the Lego packages.

There's something that I have decided and that's in part thanks to him. At this pint all I can say is that I'm starting a rescue and reuse project myself and very soon you'll be reading about it here, on the Steem blockchain.

@crosheille

She'll be surprised to see her name mentioned here as we don't really know each other. She's running the @needleworkmonday community on Steem blockchain. Unfortunately due to lack of time I've posted only a couple of times for the community. Their motto is Support & Inspire and they did a very good job inspiring me to start my needlework project. I'm really grateful for that.

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Sidenote

These Steemians are really community oriented and most of them if not all use (at least) Twitter to promote Steem. This is also very important is we want the platform to grow. I'm also using Twitter for some time now to promote Steem as we all have a duty here. It's our home and we owe it to each other to make it better by onboarding as many new users as we can.

I would go on with my list but unfortunately I need to finish my post here as I guess it's already a novel :) The truth is, you can find a new user to follow every day and get inspired by them or learn something from them and that's the beauty of this place. I believe I'm going to find some new Steemians to follow just by reading the entries to this wonderful initiative by @theycallmedan