Happy 2021!
Perhaps the best thing I can say about last year is that, through all of the darkness and distress, we saw countless amazing displays of human kindness throughout our community, with people rolling up their sleeves to help neighbors in need in ways that were both record-setting and deeply heartening. At the Y, in 2020 we raised more money (in amounts both large and small), activated more volunteers, and impacted the community in more ways than ever before.
As we closed out the year, the Y community came together one final time during this pandemic-dominated year to deliver the biggest and brightest response ever to our Giving Tree campaign! The brainchild of Eric Somerville (our Vice President Corporate and Civic Engagement), what started as a fledgling program a few years ago has mushroomed into a major community giving event which provides needed holiday presents like winter clothing and toys to Y children and youth whose families are struggling to simply make ends meet. The Giving Tree operation engaged 84 volunteers who helped to sort, package and organize gifts as well as to make holiday cards to go with them. In all, an amazing 2,700 gifts were donated, valued at close to $85,000, and distributed to 546 young people, whose holidays were brightened both by the gifts themselves and by the reminder that they are a part of a caring community which refused to let them down.
Every aspect and corner of the Y community is to be thanked for this amazing outpouring of generosity, including our partners at Horseshoe Casino, M&T Bank, Towson Sports Medicine, Jacobs Telecommunications and Rosen, Sapperstein and Friedlander. Special thanks also goes to Y associates Diana Beeson, Amy Gantz-Cheatham, Tijuanna Huggins, Shannon Kowal, Jessica Monaghan, Heather Naviasky, Tiffany Reinhardt, Sarah Wies, the Y Property Management team led by Danny Defebo, and all the other Y associates and donors who joined in this collective act of kindness. Your generosity proves that simple acts of humanity are more powerful than any challenge we may face as a community or country.
I thought I’d highlight one specific act of generosity and goodwill before we close out this holiday season. Baltimore native and Denver Nugget Will Barton generously donated 120 coats to teens participating in our Y Community Schools program. Given that he lives in Colorado, Will enlisted his kind-hearted mom Karen (pictured below) to ensure that the coats were purchased and delivered to the Y for distribution. Will and his mom, like the thousands of other Y volunteers who don’t play in the NBA, personify what is good and right about this community.
I’ll close this first Y Monday Mission Update of 2021 with an insight on kindness from the wonderful Irish poet and writer John O’Donohue. To me, it sort of captures the spirit of the Y community at its best, and the promise that kindness holds to us all.
“There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect. The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness; something instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we are able to trust and open ourselves.”
All the best,
John
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland