09/11/2018
🏆 Underdogs 🏆
Who doesn’t love an underdog? I know we do… that’s kind of how we got here in the first place. When you hear the term what comes to mind? For us a few definitions really hit home:
⚜️A person who has little status in society
⚜️A competitor thought to have little chance of winning a contest
⚜️A victim of injustice.
I Would Rather Be Reading meets the descriptions in several ways. As the founder of this organization I can tell you that getting off the ground wasn’t easy. We had no status in the community and had to fight our way into the non-profit world to have our mission heard. We asked things like “How do we even obtain a non-profit status?” and “How can we possibly fund a summer camp without a donor list of even one person?” But we demanded to be heard and when determination is evident people willingly opened the doors of opportunity. Not only for us, but for the children we serve.
Our children have their own stories. Stories that don’t necessarily need to be shared with the world, but if they were I’m sure the world wouldn’t be ready to hear them. Their stories helped to shape who they are, but they don’t define them. We are working diligently to right these wrongs and provide them with opportunities that can change the trajectory of a child’s life. EDUCATION, WELLNESS, AND POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS… That’s our mission in a nutshell.
On September 13th Give For Good Lou Day is going down. It’s a friendly competition between local non-profits, and once again WE ARE THE UNDERDOG. With only two people on our staff, working full time, and a very small budget we are having to be creative to get our name out there. But we have goals, big ones. We want to be the ones standing in front of people telling our story, how we were successful in being heard, and how the day made such a difference for our children.
With a successful Give For Good Lou day we can build capacity. Developing training programs to train and recruit more reading mentors, provide after school camps, and begin to plan for the expansion of our summer camps. We want to be in the winner’s circle that day, and I know we have a chance with support from all of you.
Being only 3 short days away and having a big goal set for ourselves, we are getting a little anxious. But I want to extend our thanks for your support because I know that whether we hit our goal or not, all of you are in our corner.
Be looking out for our posts, share out story, and visit us on Sept 13th on the Recbar patio to celebrate our growth and enjoy the Gaslight Parade.
