I'm Back!!!!

Yes, I realize it's been awhile. You know how we let life get in the way of things we enjoy doing, well that's what has happened here, and quite frankly, I wasn't really sure if anyone was even reading my blog anyway so I let it go. But then, a dear friend of mine said she had quoted something I had written in my blog to a mother who was going through a difficult time and I thought, maybe this is worth doing. Because if something I said can make a difference in even one person's life and just one person reads this, then it was worth writing. And ironically, that same dear friend has agreed to partner with me to take on the responsibility of Wear 'n Share which now allows me to have the time to write in my blog again. Funny how life works, huh?

So a few things have happened since my last entry... Wear 'n Share is now located in the B.L.E.S.S. (Better Life Enrichment Support Services) Community Outreach Center Building located at 9365 Clarence Center Road. We are in a nice huge, dry space with tons of hanging room with a convenient drive up and drop off donation spot. We has our first fundraiser in collaboration with the BLESS Corp to earn funds to pay for our expenses to be housed in this great new space and made over $6000! Woo hoo! We also received our first grant which allowed us to purchase a washer and dryer and all our beautiful new fixturing for our clothing. A local boy scout troop is working on creating a beautiful wall of shelves for our men's and women's pants which will make our organizing so much more efficient! Our heater's broken, our ceiling is crumbling, our wiring is questionable, our paint is peeling, our landscaping is, to put it kindly- wildflowers- but our donations of clothing our plentiful, our space is cozy and dry, our volunteers are cheery and happy to work, and the requests for clothing are ample so we are truly blessed.

Now let me share with you an amazing story of a community coming together in a time of need and an amazing group of deserving kids. I received a submission from our website from a coach from the Crucial Center on Mossele who runs a basketball program he kindly calls J.U.M.P. (Jesus Understands My Prayers). One of the requirements of the program is that the kids need to wear shorts/sweats and sneakers. The director told him 90% of the kids don't have these items, which basically means these kids who would love to be able to play on his team won't be able to without our help. He sent us a very heartfelt message asking if there was anything we could do for these kids. Of course, I thought, Jesus isn't the only one who understands your prayers, or maybe he sent you our way. I sent out an email to our Wear 'n Share volunteers and within a day, we had our donations overflowing with sneakers, tshirts, and shorts and Kohl's gave us a nice discount to purchase a few extra to make sure we could cover the few extra sizes when they had new players sign up. Once again, as in many times in the past, our community gathered its resources and came together to make sure we were able to have something for every kid on the team!

We delivered the items last night as the kids were at practice. Everything stopped when we showed up with our bags of goodies. We met the coach and his wife who both teach all these 30+ kids ranging in ages from 6-18 years of age. You could have heard a pin drop when he told the story of how he contacted us for help when their parents said they couldn't play on the team because they didn't have the clothes or shoes they needed. But he knew he could find a way to make sure they could play and how Wear 'n Share and our community gathered together to make sure they could. He told them how important it was for them to thank us for what we did for them and how important it was. If I didn't have all those 30 beautiful children looking at me with their beautiful grateful faces I surely would have broken down in tears. I really wanted to hug every one of them and say. You guys stick with this program, stay in school, you have your whole lives ahead of you, you're going to be okay....something amazing or profound, but I just smiled and nodded and walked out into the pouring rain, got back into my car and felt humbled by the whole experience. I just don't think there are words for it. But I do know this, we were invited to attend one of their basketball games so they're going to send us the schedule, and I can guarantee I will be proudly going to cheer those boys on, not just for that night or the game, but for what it symbolizes, this J.U.M.P. program and the pride that it brings these kids. These coaches are doing some amazing work with these kids and I feel privileged to be part of it.