Awesome

That's how the gala I attended was last night - awesome! The Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation hosted its own 20th birthday celebration last night.

CIHAD is a non-profit org that helps underprivileged and disadvantaged youth through mentoring, tutoring and financial support for post-secondary education. It's been my privilege to be a part of their mentoring services for over 1.5 years.

The highlight of the evening were guest speakers Erin Gruwell and one of her Freedom Writers, Maria Reyes. Just as a side note, Freedom Writers is a movie starring Hilary Swank. It tells of Erin's early teaching years in Long Beach, CA and the plight of her neglected and disregarded students who struggle to simply stay alive, let alone get a good education. If you haven't seen it - RUN, don't walk, RUN to your movie store and rent it. Better yet, buy it. It's worth watching a few times and definitely worth watching with others and with children.

Back to the gala...both of the young women spoke about the importance of our kids in this world and how neglected many of them are.

It was an emotional night for many of us in the audience (and you know me, I cry at the drop of a hat in most any circumstance). Their speeches were moving as were the awards given to several of the long-time IHAD students (Dreamers as we call them) and the official announcement of 2 more incoming classes (IHAD adopts a class of 4th graders from a school and they are followed through their high school years through a progression of tutoring then mentoring then financial aid for college/vocational school).

It warms my heart to be a part of something so much bigger than I am and an organization that has long-reaching and lasting effects. It's not quick fix for anyone involved: the kids are part of the program from 4th grade into college (and many are involved into their adulthood by becoming board members, etc). The tutors and mentors are asked to give a minimum of one year but most of us stay with our Dreamers for the rest of our lives. And the sponsors who "adopt" a class stay with their Dreamers from 4th grade on.

I'm so happy to be a part of that and to have contributed my time, my money and my heart. I hope to one day be able to sponsor an entire class. How wonderful - to adopt 50 kids! Right now I mentor one Dreamer and she's just a peach. I love hanging out with her and it's been a pleasure to be a part of her life over the last 1.5 years. I'm amazed...I know I'm going to turn around and she'll be graduating!

It's truly a life-changing experience to mentor someone who is growing up so differently than I did. It's a lot of fun but definitely has its challenging moments (like anything).

I know some of my friends think I'm a "good" person for volunteering and mentoring but my life only feels complete when I'm doing things for my community and for the world around me. I feel like I'm connected to something greater than my own little life and that gives me purpose.

Without purpose I feel incomplete and hollow, like I'm missing the inside of my leg. Perhaps that makes me strange but strange is fine. Weird is good as one of my teachers says. ;)

Anyway, I think the world would be a much better place if each of us just stopped for a moment out of every day and thought of something nice we could do for someone else. To find some way to contribute to a life outside of our own.

It gives me warm fuzzies anyway. :)

Enjoy your weekend. I'm heading off to Wash Park to walk for awhile and then will probably go home. I need a quiet night alone to relax after a busy week. And it has to be tonight because I have volunteering to do tomorrow along with some freelance stuff. It will be a busy weekend!