Year End Gratitude from Us to You
“Don’t aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference.”
– Denzel Washington
As we wrap up a successful 2021 and head into the New Year, our Boys & Girls Club leadership team would like to take a moment to express the gratitude we feel not only as individuals who get to positively impact young lives each and every day, but as a team who is extremely blessed to have the continuous support of so many in our community who wholeheartedly believe in our ability to carry out the mission and vision of this incredible organization. Each year we are overwhelmed (in the very best way) by the generosity we’ve been able to witness, especially during the holiday season. This year has been no exception. Here are a few examples:
We love being able to spread joy during the holidays through our Adopt a Family program. This year, 35 donors adopted a total of 46 families resulting in gifts for 124 children. Thank you to ALL individuals, families, and businesses/organizations who donated to help ensure our Club families have a very Merry Christmas!
Special thanks to Buechel Stone, FDL Charity Club, Drexel Building Supply, Dynamic Chiropractic & Wellness Center, Edward Jones, Fox Valley Savings Bank, Eagles Club, Holiday Automotive, Just Love Coffee Cafe, Ideal Chiropractic & Therapeutic Massage, Mercury Marine, Mid-States Aluminum, Fond du Lac Noon Optimists, Silica For Your Home, The Next Connection, and the Fond du Lac Family YMCA for their generosity this year.
Our good friends Katie and Brad Pachefsky, owners of the best little sandwich shop in town fondly known as Jimmy John’s, reached out to us earlier this month expressing their interest in treating our kids to some delicious subs, chips and cookies. We naturally accepted this incredibly kind gesture and the kids were just thrilled when they realized they had a special surprise meal to eat when they headed to the cafeteria at Club on an ordinary Monday afternoon. We are SO thankful for the continued support of thoughtful partners like Katie and Brad who go out of their way to make an ordinary day EXTRAORDINARY for the youth we serve. Thank you!!!
Fond du Lac Area Women’s Fund graciously presented our Boys & Girls Club with a $2,000 grant award gift to support our SMART Girls Program. The program focuses on education for girls ages 10 to 17 to develop positive attitudes, build effective life skills and feel empowered to become responsible adult women through health, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement activities. Two 14-week blocks during the school year and one 10-week block during the summer with a minimum of three community partners will assist in the execution of the program, utilizing their expertise to work with our staff members to identify effective and impactful discussion topics and program activities for implementation.
We were presented with a brand new, wonderful opportunity to partner with the Festival of Trees event that took place at the Historic Galloway House & Village earlier this month. Our leadership team had such a wonderful time getting into the holiday spirit by decorating our Christmas tree together. The theme of our tree focused on our organizational values and commitment to youth, and the values of youth and families that we serve.
Our values were represented within the different colored ornaments on the tree: Red represented “Respect” (Everyone matters), Blue represented “Belonging” (This is our Club!), Green represented “Responsibility” (My choices make a difference), Orange represented “Safety” (Safety starts with me), and Teal represented “Growth” (I can and I will). We also asked our youth to share their own family traditions with the community, and in each picture frame Club members wrote about their family traditions or cultures surrounding the holiday season. Finally, our Club members and staff worked together to create colorful snowflakes to represent our commitment to providing a creative, educational and fun afterschool and summer program.
Our Christmas tree was on display for all to see as they attended “Christmas in the Village” on December 11-12, and was also included in an auction to help benefit our organization as well as others in our community. We are happy to report that our tree sold for $120.00 to a lucky bidder. We hope the winner enjoys it as much as we enjoyed decorating it!
With that, we wish you ALL a very Happy New Year!