The past week was pretty incredible! I have lived in a lot of different places, and beyond the wonderful weather, and awesome natural resources, Alamogordo, New Mexico has the most beautiful, loving, caring and generous people I have ever met. Tuesday evening I attended the second gathering of the 100 Women Who Care - Alamogordo. https://www.facebook.com/100womenwhocarealamogordo/ Our group started less than six months ago and has over 130 members, loving, caring women. We meet quarterly for one hour to give a big ass check to a local nonprofit. The three nonprofits up for consideration at each meeting are drawn at random from those nominated by the membership. Each nonprofit chosen is then invited to speak for 5 minutes to share what they are all about and what they will do with the money if chosen. Then we vote! Each $100 member gets a voting chip (2 member teams, $50 each, one chip and 4 member teams, $25 each, one chip) the nonprofit with must votes gets all the money! And last night that was $11,400 for Foxhole Homes, a local nonprofit that is working to build a sustainable community for homeless veterans, building Earthships, cottage industry and much more, check out what they are all about at https://www.foxhole.org/ It's amazing that in such a short period of time, so many generous women have come together and are able to impacted our community in such a big and powerful way. I feel blessed to spend time with such women.So the next day I visited the Alamogordo Rotary Club, because i was really excited to see their program, I had met the speaker a few weeks ago at Regional Rotary event. Christine Gillian is the founder of the nonprofit Women To Be, https://women2be.org. Did you know that millions of women and girls around the world don't have basic sanitary supplies, items many of us take for granted every month? Christine has created sustainable kits that are made right here in New Mexico and she has been hand delivering these kits, along with sex education classes, around the world over the past few years. Currently she is working to raise $18k which will multiply to $62k through Rotary matching grants. her story was powerful & inspiring,but as the program wrapped up something spectacular happened. Two members of the club, who are administrators at our local hospital, from across the room and without words, made a decision to pledge a donation of $5,000 to Women to Be! It then created a domino effect of multiple additional $500 individual donations. Christine was speechless and so grateful, the lives that will be changed from that generosity are so numerous and multi generational. I feel so blessed to live in a community of such incredibly giving and caring people and organizations. These two days were just a snippet of many I've seen and been a part of, and it's not just about money, but also the time people are willing to give to help someone in need. Making a difference every day.
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When you hear the phrase, “Service Above Self”, what does it mean to you? Maybe helping others, selflessness, doing your part for your community? If you or someone close to you is a Rotarian then it is a motto you are very familiar with. Service Above Self was a motto that came out of a conversation between two Rotarians during the 1911 National Rotary Convention in Portland, Oregon. With a slight modification it was officially adopted by Rotary in 1950 at the Rotary International Convention in Detroit, MI and it has brought together people from all ends of the earth in creating a better world each day, ever since. "We are greater when we look beyond ourselves and when we do for others, it is our purpose." I was introduced to Rotary in 2010. I went to a lunch meeting with my pastor as a favor, he had joined the chamber to help me qualify as Chamber Ambassador so I went to lunch with him. The presentation that day was about a new international project the club was taking on with a club in El Salvador and an NGO call Bridges to Prosperity. Bridges to Prosperity works together with communities in South and Central American and Africa to build footbridges. Did you know there are villages where entire communities get cut off from the world during monsoon season? Could you imagine not being able to get to medial care, get your goods to market, or your child having to navigate an extremely dangerous river crossing just to get to school? This is reality for many families and because of the work of Bridges to Prosperity and partners like Rotary, safe and efficient routes are being created in villages around the world. After the presentation all I could think was, "I want to build bridges and change lives around the world!!!" What an incredible opportunity! Needless to say, I joined Rotary! "I want to build bridges & change lives around the world!!!" Now 6+ years of perfect attendance later, 3 international service trips and on the cusp of becoming the president of the White Sands Rotary Club, my life has been changed forever. It was a pretty great lunch don't you think! Rotary has been a gift to my life. I have met so many wonderful people in my local area, statewide, around the country and the world! New friends that wouldn't exist in my life if it wasn't for that lunch and for this 100+ year old organization. Serving others and making it part of your daily routine, is life changing. We are greater when we look beyond ourselves and when we do for others, it is our purpose. There are so many ways that we can live the life of Service Above Self, find a way to incorporate it into your life, I of course recommend joining a Rotary club! Each day take some time to better yourself. Do for others and change your world, you'd be surprised how a little simple thing can change your life and the lives of hundreds of others, for me it only took one lunch! "Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world it will be know by the results it achieves." - Paul P. Harris Founder of Rotary International Sometimes life can feel so overwhelming, that to even considering helping someone else can put our brain into overload. When we ourselves are struggling it's difficult to see beyond the troubles and worries we have. But this may be the time when it is most important to step outside our situations and do for others. Here are a few simple things you can do that will not only make an impact on someones life, but may also change yours as well.
Last but certainly not least! 5. Smile at someone! This seems easy to do, but can be so easily forgotten. I've caught myself in a mirror plenty of times while walking around a store with a nondescript face, and thought geez, smile Michelle! One thing that triggers a smile for me always is a little kid or baby. I once read how important it is to smile at a child because you as a stranger represent that outside world and the good and bad they see in it. I want them to see the good. Smiling also makes you more attractive and can be contagious, your simple smile can make the difference in someones life, its FREE and so easy to do! So, spread the joy and smile more! Share your stories in the comments below of how you try to make a difference in the lives of those around you or how someone did that for you! “Kindness can transform someone's dark moment with a blaze of light. You'll never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today.” - Amy Leigh Mercree Have you ever heard someone say, "I can't afford to give", have you said it yourself? This has become a huge pet peeve of mine, and I'll tell you why. I think a lot of people have a misconception when it comes to giving, they think that they have to give huge amounts of money for it to matter or make a difference. They also forget that giving their time is equally as important as giving a monetary donation. We all find time and money for the things that we value and feel are important, whether its that fancy morning coffee, celebrity gossip magazine, local craft beer or new dress, each of those buying decisions could change the life of a local child, family or senior. Setting up a regular giving cycle, whether it be weekly or monthly can be very helpful. It can be difficult to write a check for $500 dollars, but to put aside $1.37 a day, now that seems manageable. Setting up an automatic withdrawal from your bank account is my favorite way of giving, because I can set it and forget it. "No one has ever become poor by giving." -Anne Frank But let's look at another aspect of giving. When people say "I Can't Afford to Give" they are setting themselves up for failure in that moment. This is how I visualize it, Imagine your hands held together flat across your chest, when you don't give of yourself and your finances, it's like having a closed heart and when your heart is closed to giving and not sending things out, it is also closed to allowing things to come in. When you open your heart and give of yourself you are also open to receive. Now I'm not suggesting that you give so that you can receive, but it is a perk of doing so. "When you open your heart and give of yourself you are also open to receive." My mother in law is so funny, she was telling me a little while back that she just can't give her money away without it coming right back, sometimes literally. She wrote a $20 check to send off to a favorite charity and that same day found a $20 bill on the ground. Having an open heart and giving of yourself will change your life and lives of countless others. Find that "thing" that is important to you, that "thing" that you love and want to see grow, an organization that has touched your life or the life of someone close to you and get involved! Make a commitment to make a difference at whatever level you can, but dig deep and really think about the money you spend each day and how it could have a much bigger impact than just satisfying your caffeine addiction, your need for celebrity gossip or your sweet tooth. Make a difference!
Do you ever get frustrated with yourself? Bummed that you aren't where you want to be, in your career, relationship, life? It can be difficult to be patient when we want something so bad. In my role as the Director of Marketing & Fundraising of a small nonprofit I was working very hard my first year getting the organizations name out there, speaking to as many groups as I possibly could and at the end of that year we had raised more money than the year prior, But not nearly as much as I was hoping. It was disheartening, but I had to shake it off, and remind myself that you don't plant a tree today and harvest peaches tomorrow. Its the nurturing love and care for the seeds we plant, that will allow us to reap the rewards in our future. A strong desire and a focus on the little steps we can take each day, will lead us to results we want. But don't forget to have a game plan, knowing where you want to go is the first step in getting there, and making sure you stay on track will help you achieve your goals sooner than later. Will you succeed every time, will every seed you plant grow into the champion blue ribbon winning giant pumpkin? No. Failure is part of the equation. It's those missteps that are sometimes necessary for us to learn the lessons we need to learn, to find that something more that will lead us to success. "Whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap." Galatians 6:7 Did you know Dr. Seuss' first book was rejected by 27 publishers? He went on to sell 600 million books worldwide, How about Abraham Lincoln, one of our most well know presidents, he entered the Black Hawk War of 1832 as a Captain and left as a Private, only to later rise to the highest office in our country. Plant seeds everyday and you will reap what you sow. Lets make it an incredible harvest! |
AuthorMichelle loves helping people to be their best each an everyday, lets Thrive! Archives
November 2017
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