This month we celebrate!
We celebrate by looking back;
we remember the dream, and we reminisce the humble beginnings of With Love.
We celebrate by recognizing all that With Love has become today, six years later.
We recognize the volunteers who work, the visionaries who make things happen, the donors who generously give and all the people who believe and care enough to bring honor and LOVE to this foster care community.
We applaud!
We cheer!
Can we dance and pop a bottle of champagne too?!!
We are filled to the brim with awe and gratitude.
We celebrate by dreaming; we strategize, believing that this is only the beginning.
The impact could be even greater; the love could reach farther; and more families and children could be impacted.
The dreams for With Love have always reached farther and sooner than even what we were ready for.
But this is what love is; it is unstoppable and it grows unapologetically.
It has a way of filling in the hollow gaps and then seeping over, flowing freely and changing everything.
We are celebrating this.
The abundance of love.
We are celebrating the extraordinary power of people together, working with vision, fueled by desire to make something happen.
Something better.
Something that has changed the fabric of our community.
People
helping people
who help people.
May is National Foster Care Awareness Month.
How appropriate that May is also With Love’s birthday.
We celebrate Six Years this month.
Six Years.
And I believe we are just getting started.
President Ronald Reagan first declared a national recognition of foster care in May in 1988. Since then, this month has been designated as a time to recognize, celebrate and support foster care families, children and initiatives.
I marvel at all that has happened over the past 6 years.
It was only six years ago that With Love was contained in the home of Allie Roth, consuming her rooms and taking over her furniture and hallways.
With Love filled a gap in our community.
There were so many donations and so many foster care families and children who benefited from them.
For Allie, the name With Love came naturally.
Without love, this whole thing wouldn’t be possible.
But With Love it was unrestrainable.
People donated;
volunteers sorted, cleaned and organized;
foster parents received;
children were loved.
And the community flourished.
Soon enough, it was necessary to purchase one unit in a warehouse to accommodate for all the donated material goods.
Word spread.
Love spread.
It’s contagious. People want to grab a hold of it. They want to be a part of it.
Volunteers came.
Soon some employees needed to be hired.
Media got hold of it.
There were so many newspaper stories. Then television.
Awards.
Recognition.
Benefit dinners.
A van.
And soon another unit was purchased.
So now we are filling two whole warehouses; and even still there is a slight swell at the seams.
The future is before us.
It is bright and bold and abundant.
SO Happy Birthday With Love.
Here’s to Six Years.
It’s been a joy to watch you grow.
You’ve been a powerful force in our community and I know that the years will only bring more goodness and strength to our community.
And we know that With Love could not flourish as it has without the heartbeat behind it all: Volunteers. Donors. Believers.
You have filled those warehouse walls with a pulse that has profoundly impacted this community.
Thank you.
From the whole of our hearts, we walk confidently into the next years, because we are just getting started.
