I just felt the need to share what a great couple of weeks I’ve had, meeting with various individuals throughout the area to share stories from the lives of the persons we support, and then inviting them to join our efforts to help create more and better stories. Specifically, given that we will shortly have a number of board vacancies, my staff and I had generated a wish list containing names of persons that we wanted to approach regarding their interest in running for one of these vacancies. All of the individuals on the list had some connection to the agency, either as family members or through business dealings, and certainly had demonstrated their support of Garden Center Services in a number of ways. That being said, everyone is so busy, either with families, job responsibilities, community participation, etc., that I was anxious about these individuals’ ability to add another commitment to their list. Well, I need not have been!
To a person, everyone that either I or Jennifer Georgis, Director of Development, met with, had such kind, caring, and concrete stories themselves of individuals that are served by our programs, and about the overall efforts of the agency. The initial response of each person was an excitement at the prospect of being on the board, and helping to support our mission of improving the lives of adults with intellectual and/or physical disabilities. I was just so heartened and grateful for their positive experiences linked to our agency, and their selflessness at considering a role on the board of directors.
So often our minds are bombarded with the news stories about conflict, violence, exploitation, and loss. It is helpful and healing to focus on all the good that goes on in the world, and the people that commit to making it happen.