A Return to Blogging

 Greetings!

One of my new year's resolutions was to start blogging again- truthfully, that was on my new year's list last year as well and didn't happen. Possibly the year before that as well. But, here we are- back to blogging! SO much has happened in the past 6 years, I don't really know where to begin and that was actually one of the reasons I hadn't blogged- because so much time went by, I feel like I didn't know where to start with a blog again. It seemed like I couldn't just start writing about what was happening now, without sharing so much of what happened over the last 6 years and then, it was like- where do I even begin with all that?

So, I'm just going to start with the present and I'll fill in the journey with Suits & Smiles as I go. My goal with blogging again is just to talk- share what I'm working on, what we've achieved, what I'm trying to achieve and what its like running Project Smile. 

Starting with the most recent- on Saturday- a couple of days before the massive snowstorm, I went to the Lions Club Mid Winter Conference for 2 districts in Southbridge. My only program for Project Smile up until 2020 was Smiles for Children- providing stuffed animals for emergency responders to give to children who are victims of traumatic events. Nowadays, my focus is on Suits & Smiles- the program providing job interview clothing for low income men. However, I still run our children's program- mostly because it runs itself and that touches my heart. It's scaled way back, but we still make donations- primarily to Boston and Worcester PD which do a ton of events and work with children in need. 

One of the Directors of the Lions Club, who knew about Project Smile from previous work as a firefighter, reached out about wanting to organize a service project at the Lions Club conference where they could put together kits for children filled with stuffed animals, coloring books and crayons in a pretty tote bag. I was happy to have their help and was really touched that they wanted to be involved. It had been a long time since I was at a stuffed animal event for Project Smile and it brought back so many memories and was really joyful. I got to participate a bit and took a bunch of photos and got to meet members who were putting the kits together. A police officer from Worcester PD who handles community involvement came to the hotel to pick most of them up. They are happy to have them and they will definitely go to good use. 

It was really heart warming for me because it shows the value of the stuffed animal program for children and how much people still want to support it. I'm grateful that the program is able to continue.

Well, that's all for today- I'm going to have my leftover chicken pot pie that I made during the blizzard, then head to Zumba since I've only walked 3,500 steps today and then to the Basket, because the fridge is looking rather empty. Even though neither Zumba nor Market Basket sound like particularly exciting activities right now.