Putting on a luncheon for 1,500 people isn’t easy. As the event gets closer and closer, one finds oneself so mired in the millions of important details that you can’t remember anymore what you’re really working for.
You can’t see the forest, in other words, for the trees. Or, the purpose for the nametags.
It begins, after a while, from the inside, to feel like chaos for the sake of chaos.
And then you’re at the event, and after all the running around and the worrying and the making sure everyone is seated, the video comes on.
And you remember, instantaneously, what it’s all really about.
I remember vividly standing against the wall in the back of the ballroom watching that video for the first time and thinking, this is real, this transformation. It’s not just a slogan or a logo or a theme.
The change is real.
Watching Laceiy’s story, and then hearing her and Sharan tell their stories to all 1,500 of us, without nary a cracking voice, you could feel it.
That the power of everyone in that room, and everyone who supports The Women’s Foundation and the work of our Grantee Partners, was working.
That it was changing lives, changing families, changing women, changing everything.
When you see a group of women sitting around a construction work site talking about changing their lives, and supporting each other and sticking through the challenges of moving into work that most never even consider as women’s work, you know.
This change is real, and it’s big, and it’s unstoppable.
And that it’s not just about Laceiy or Sharan or the many women who will follow in their footsteps, but that it’s about all of us.
That when we invest in and open new doors and pave new pathways for women and girls anywhere, it impacts women everywhere by removing barriers, changing perceptions and removing limits.
And that’s what I thought about as I stood against the wall at the luncheon, watching the video, and then listening to Laceiy and Sharan tell their stories, is about how it’s easy to get lost in the details and the statistics and the numbers when it comes to investing in social change, in building communities, in contributing to stronger families.
Sometimes, you can lose the forest for the trees, or the story for the statistics.
Because really, sometimes, what it all comes down to is one opportunity, one chance, one choice.
One pathway to change a life, a family, and a future.
And that’s what I love about The Women’s Foundation. Is that we do that every day, mulitiplied thousands of times over throughout our region.
We invest in stories of lives changed.
And once a year, we get together to celebrate that investment, that choice, that strategy. To remember the stories, for the trees.
It rocked.
Ready to invest in women and girls and create more stories of tranformation? Help us meet our challenge grant, or find another way to get involved in The Power of Giving Together. There’s a place for everyone at The Women’s Foundation. Find yours today.
