generosity

generous people just tremendously warm my heart.  i experienced this on so many levels today.  through a serious of events, my family has become very involved in the Albert T Mills enrichment center.  this is a school for children ages 3-5 who live in a very rough part of atlanta.  the woman that started the school did so when her own son was shot and killed by a couple 16 year old kids.  she realized that they really did not understand the consequences of their actions.  she wanted to develop a place to teach kids right from wrong early and to prevent these tragedies from happening to other families.  the school is run completely on donations and they have SO much need.  they are out of money, and the teachers are now working without pay.  most of the students do not have heat at home and are sleeping on the floor.  the school serves the children breakfast and lunch and for some these are the only meals that they receive each day.  my mom and i have been talking about ways to help for the past few weeks and decided we really wanted to hit this hard for the holidays when people are in the giving spirit. 

this morning i set out to work on three initiatives that we developed.  one- give a thanksgiving meal to all 60 of the children's families.  i sent an email to my atlanta friends and had several people respond immediately wanting to participate.  two- organize a drive at my condominium for people to donate educational toys for their classroom.  the condo board is kind of uptight so i expected to receive push back but they thought this school was a great partnership opportunity.  three- one of my besties jill has her annual xmas party and plans to asks her 70 something guests to bring school supplies for the kids.  i'm so overwhelmed with how much everyone wants to help our community.  all i've done is send a couple emails....it is the people around that are so inspiring.  so excited to see where these projects go.....

smart friends

i am thankful for the academic accomplishments of two friends today.  jill willoughby studied extremely hard for the GMAT, and her efforts were rewarded with an amazing score.  on that very same day, chris griffith - friend and fellow blogger - learned he was accepted into georgia tech's MBA program.  we merged parties and celebrated at our favorite watering hole - the family dog.  (as if an excuse for happy hour is needed.)  we will also take appropriate action in the future and toast great papers, good test scores, mediocre test scores, mediocre papers, etc.  i look forward to expanding our social network to the georgia epicenter of geek chic.  and feel very fortunate to be in the inner circle of knowledge.  chris can tell me when black framed glasses are no longer hip.  and jill can tip me off when i need to convert my dollars to gold as the fed prints more money for her tuition.  ;) seriously congratulations to both, you deserve all the success in the world.  

(photo - jill at family dog)

(photo- chris at candler park fall festival)