It has been an amazing year. In 2017 we sent 11 kids to college, 1 to trade school, hired a teacher to help with homework and English lessons in the evenings so our kids can navigate their new English-medium school day to day. We hired a new set of house parents who bring new and exciting skills to our creative and loving staff.
Our long-term support and volunteer super hero – Leela Lawrence – came on board full time. This added staff is needed as we continue to grow and establish new programming. And, a house full of teenagers can be a challenge – fun and challenging!
Each year we are asked to create a New Year’s resolution, bring about change, create new goals, new plans, and a new life. I am always ambivalent about this idea that change, creating or doing should come at the beginning of a calendar year. In the nonprofit world, we are the masters of creating solutions on the spot all year long if we are to claim any street cred at all.
We want to start this New Year with the same optimism we muster throughout the year – to meet each day with the idea that each one of our kids is filled with possibility and it is our job to create a world where anything is possible with hard work and determination.
We have big dreams for the coming year. We want to be organic farmers, grow more of our own food and establish an Organic Cooperative supplying produce to local grocery stores and restaurants. It is a tall order. We need to rehab the greenhouse, prepare the fields, dig a bore well and hire one full-time staff person to oversee the project. This kind of programming is part of our long-term goal to create job-skills
training and life skills to our kids – tools for life.
Of course the greatest part of this past year is the same as it always is – to watch our kids mature, create, dream, stay healthy and work hard to achieve their dreams.
Have a wonderful New Year from all of us to all of you.