Wow! Congratulations …We as an organization have so much to celebrate!  Committing $1,000,000 to our community in just 4 years is amazing!    The amount  of money given, the number of hours of work put forth, the number of agencies helped are all impressive numbers, but  It is often in the simple personal  stories of some of the people we are helping that we find the real joy and sense of accomplishment.   I was lucky enough the last two weeks to hear several of these stories and want to briefly share some of them with you. 

Imagine with me that you are a 25 year old single woman with 4 children ranging in age from nine months to 7 years. You have NO high school diploma, NO job, NO skills, and NO family support.  You live in a world where gangs, drugs and violence are a way of life.  You have been told all your life that you  are NOTHING.  Your self esteem runs so low, as does your hope of ever finding your way out. 

This is the case of a young lady who told me her story. She said she cried herself to sleep every night and even said that there was not one single day of happiness in her small apartment.  She wasn’t happy with herself as a person or as a mother.  She would tell herself daily….”you’ve wasted your life”  “you are a loser”  “you are a nobody.”

One day while this mother was at a One Stop Job Service updating her job search, she saw a piece of paper out of the corner of her eye that said “Do you need childcare to return to school?”  She said she felt as if God himself was speaking to her.  She called the number and the wonderful organization Family Connections had room for her children…Not only did they have room for her kids, but because of a grant from Women Giving for Spartanburg, she was provided with counseling by a parent/coach interventionist .  This pilot program provides the needed support to help develop a stable more functioning family environment.  This woman said that Now people believed in her and actually smiled at her.  She is now proud of herself for the first time in her life and is working on her GED.  Initially her goal was to get her GED and then a job….NOW her goal is to get her GED, go to college and get a great job!  She said that she now  instead of insulting herself daily she says to herself, “I CAN, and I AM”  Congratulations…our WG Members…You have helped break the cycle of poverty for this woman and her children. 

NOW, let me tell you about little Grace…  One day this little eight year old girl was picked up from school by strangers and taken to a new home…a group home not even in Spartanburg.  Grace knew that her mother was hanging around bad people and probably doing drugs.   As most children do, Grace worried that her mother would now be even sadder if she could not find her daughter.  Seems to be carrying the weight of the world, doesn’t she?  Grace’s  older brother had learned to care for her.  Now she would have to face the world without him…who would make sure she was safe and that her hair was fixed , that she was fed breakfast, and that  she didn’t miss the bus?  Grace would now sleep in a strange bed with strange children, without her siblings, her favorite teachers, her best friends or any of her possessions.

This is where the ELLEN HINES SMITH Girls home and Women Giving stepped in.  Because of a generous grant given by each of you, the Girls Home is able to move beyond just residential care to home based services.  We helped answer Grace’s prayers…after The Girls Home intervened and worked with the extended family, Grace now lives back in Spartanburg with her Grandmother and her brother.  She lives within walking distance of other family members and attends her school and church and even sees her mother from time to time.  You gave her back her security, her comfort, her hope and her precious smile.

Another  story of our impact was told to me by a kind-hearted man who worked for the Imagination Library Program through The United Way.  This program provides free children’s books once a month in homes where reading is not a priority.  Once again, because of our generous grant from Women Giving for Spartanburg this organization was able to send a teacher into at risk homes and coach parents on how to develop readers and to work with the children to foster a love of reading.  This kind-hearted man told the story of how he went in a trailer to work with an 85 year old grandmother who could not read or write herself.  She had sole custody of 5 of her grandchildren as the mother was incarcerated and the father was not in the picture.  He said the ONLY bright spot in this home was the books provided by the Imagination Library.  One day he was working with this grandmother’s toddlers while her older grandchildren were at school.  He  said that he worked so hard to pull the illiterate grandmother  into the learning activities whenever possible.  On this particular day Just as he was about to leave, the school bus carrying her 3 elementary and junior high grandchildren pulled up.  They all 3 ran together to the mailbox together.  Well, it happened to be the day when a new book arrived.  They all squealed with delight and ran into this trailer, dropped to the floor and started reading to the toddlers.  He said he watched filled with such happiness and excitement.  But then he noticed that the grandmother had tears streaming down her face.  He sensed her desire to participate in the process and share this experience with her grandchildren.  He told her, “You know you don’t have to be able to read, just open the book up and start talking to the kids about the pictures.”  She smiled through her tears and said…” You know, I think I can do that”

 Something so simple as a book can bring so much joy, and in the process, we helped create a family of readers.  Well, I think together we can continue to touch families like these and continue to create these kinds of stories..  Thank you all so much for being a part of this organization of hope.  I applaud each one of you.