The news today tends to be filled with sensationalized video and sound bites that don’t always share good news. As we wind down our fiscal year at the end of June, it is useful to take a moment to reflect on the work we have the privilege of doing each day at Little Friends. A couple of stories worth sharing help put all of what do into perspective.
In May, we shared with the community some information about John, one of the men we help who celebrated an incredible milestone with his job at Jewel. Some historical perspective helps with this story.
When John was 18 years old, he rode his bike to Jewel and filled out a job application. He interviewed for the job he wanted and was hired. During this time, our role was to help John learn how to navigate the job skills he needed including appropriate customer and employee interactions. An amazing 50 years later, Jewel celebrated John’s accomplishments with not only a celebration cake but gave John a new bike to recognize his accomplishment! How cool is this!!!
During the last week of May, our school programs celebrated the end of the school year with graduations for several of the children moving on or up into a new level in our programs. It was fun to see families in the audience proud of their child or brother/sister dressed in their gowns. It was great to hear the teachers talk about the students and the things they accomplished.
However, the best part for me was listening to the students share their own thoughts as to what they wanted to say about their experience at Little Friends. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few tears in the audience watching all of this unfold.
As one of our administrators told me, “Graduation day reminds us why we do what we do.”
Sometimes having the opportunity to pause and reflect provides perspective. In this case, the story about John and my observations at our graduation ceremony are the things that can feed a soul. If this is sensationalized, at least the stories are good ones!
