After a long day at work (which from my perspective is a whole separate definition of exhausting for teachers who work with special needs kids) imagine spending your free time volunteering for your job....
Essentially Meredith, Fran and Jean do just that. Jean takes her students on fieldtrips one Saturday a month. Fran spends her summers with them, carting them to all the fun summer activities she can dig up. Meredith, as CEO of Hand in Hand, is working hard to secure a financial partner to begin Phase II of their housing project. All three have been endlessly working on the fundraising -- a Festival of Trees at Christmas, a benefit concert last fall, and soon, the coffee shop profits, they hope.
They've explored a partnership with Camp Twin Lakes, a regional camp in Rutledge that hosts camps all summer for kids with various needs and illnesses. The property there is an option, and a good one, where these adults could live, interact, garden, go to chapel and some of them hold jobs. Community groups would have easy access for partnering and mentoring these high school graduates. A win-win, given the right financial backing.
Over a really tasty, steaming coffee yesterday, I got to meet the women at the heart of this project. I got to see their eyes gleaming with excitement and pride when they talked about their dreams. For their students and for their cause. I got to visit right at ground zero for something that just two years ago was only a suggestion,a pipe dream, not even a fully formed idea. It's infective, this energy, this coming together for such a good cause, helping to meet such an important need.
I'm starting to see how this homegrown giving takes root.
Hand in Hand Ministries
P.O. Box 1378 Madison, GA 30650
706-474-0247
www.handinhandministries.com
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