Gratiot County CASA Awards Luncheon in the afternoon, where they very kindly gave me another award... I'm both moved by the acknowledgement, and self-conscious--I'm just doing my little bit! In the last two years, I've received three awards for CASA work. For someone like me, it's a lot to hear people say stuff about me, make an acceptance speech, etc. The real heroes are the children, IMO.
And in the evening, we were guests of CD and JD at the Refugee Development Center gala for a tour of the new facilities and the ribbon cutting. Big A could see my immediate impulse was to give up everything and devote all my time to teaching refugees English language skills, and began counseling prudence. I'm going to volunteer over the summer, at any rate. The testimonies from the kids brought me to HAPPY tears over and over again. Among the awardees for good citizenship were a pair of third graders--one giggly, one serious, a ninth grader from Chad who dressed up for the occasion in a suit, and a high-schooler who shouted out all the suffering countries including Palestine, Iran, and Lebanon.
Pic: The actual ribbon cutting. It was so fun to see people from different spheres of my life up there--church friends, legislators, our family physician's spouse, colleagues, etc.
4 comments:
This is so wonderful, so well deserved! A lot of joy in that day.
Congratulations. Yes, the children are heroic, but anyone who selflessly gives of their time and energies advocating for them (as you do) deserves recognition. It takes a village, after all....
I think a lot of us struggle with accepting praise publicly. I try to lean in because I hope it is encouraging to others. “If I can do this, and I am just me, imagine what YOU can do?” That’s the message I want to put out, that everyone can dive in and do their part to making the world better.
Sounds like an inspiring event.
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