#12 Ho Ho Ho!

My grandson, Tristan, lovingly calls Santa, "Ho Ho".
It's not that he can't say "Santa," it's just that at 2 1/2, Tristan calls it as he sees it~ To Tristan, the fat guy in the red suit is "Ho Ho" and that's that.
Wouldn't it be nice if it were always that simple to call it as we see it? Recently, I was reading an article that claimed that there are 3 main reasons why people don't fund not-for-profits; reasons that seemed well considered, but failed, I thought, to let people just call it as they saw it. The reasons listed were that the organizations were either anonymous, irrelevant, or that their results were immeasurable. In the big scheme, for big organizations, those things may be true. But for little not-for-profits like ours, it seemed that it ought to be more simple; like "Ho Ho."
We at the Light Center knock ourselves out to deliver a program that is neither typical, nor easy to explain. And yes, the Light Center does keep a very low profile in the community... Our kids are often wards of the court, mentally challenged, coming from homes in crisis, or plagued with a long list of other "unpublishable" traumas and drama. You don't find the faces of Light Center kids plastered on the front of newspapers, and you seldom see them in our own newsletter. As best we can, we try to respect the confidentiality of the families we serve. So are we anonymous?? Perhaps to a certain extent... As to whether our job is worth doing, I can only say that our society is really in bad shape if the day should ever come where reaching out to help kids in trouble or need becomes "irrelevant." It doesn't matter where these kids come from, it doesn't matter how old they are, what color they are, or what their family background is... Heaven help us all, the day we call the taxpayers, voters, and potentially troubled adults of tomorrow, "irrelevant." Which then brings us to "measureable," to which I would ask, "how do you measure where self-confidence will take a kid in later life?" How can we tell if a kid's lack of anger today, will translate into one more anger-less day tomorrow?? When will we know if the gentle care a young girl shows to a helpless bunny will keep her from abusing her infant a few years from now? And how do we measure that moment of self reflection when a 10 year old bully realizes that 800 lbs of horse doesn't care how tough he thinks he is??? Immeasurable? I see the yardstick as clearly as I see this desk in front of me; I hope others do as well.
So where is all this taking us? Well, perhaps I'm just hoping that when you think of the Light Center this holiday season, you'll simply think "Ho Ho". The kids are here, the program is here, the animals are here, and our small but dedicated staff is here, day after day, one-day-at-a-time. And we do it because we know we make a difference. We don't give up on kids because it gets tough, and unfortunately, we don't have time for great introspection on the whys and wherefores of donor support. Big agencies have big budgets, fancy brochures, and cash to spend on staying in the limelight. And others, like ours, just call it as we see it~ We are "the little red barn with the great big heart." "We use rescued animals to rescue kids." And we love our donors who recognize us for who we are. Like "Ho Ho," we hope your eyes light up when you see us, because, quite simply, "to know us (we hope) is to love us!"
And PS: Irene swears that each year we have a Xmas Miracle, and when I think back, I believe she may be correct. There was the year an entire box of new tack for the horses showed up at my door on Xmas Eve. And there was the year a guy called my home while we were opening packages and told us he wanted to donate $500. because he liked kids and horses. Yesterday, in the midst of bill paying, Irene and I remembered we had not yet made final arrangements for locating an accountant to conduct our '07 end-of-year audit. This audit, I might add, goes up a considerable amount annually, and was projected to hit us for about $4000. this year.... Now here comes the good part~ Within the hour, we get a call from a CPA that had been recommended to us, telling us that he'd love to help us out but he couldn't possibly think of charging us, as he's heard we're doing such a great job!!! He's doing our audit for free!!!!!!! Xmas Miracle? You can decide for yourself, but we think this great guy knew a good thing when he saw it; he saw the shining light of "Ho Ho!"
So, from all of us to all of you, we wish you the happiest of holidays and a year full of the simplicity and peace of Ho Ho!
Love, Jan, Irene, Kristen, Dee, Jill, Juan, Brooke, our great board of directors, and our faithful menagerie; Foxey, Rosie, Rhett, CeCe, Toto, Daisy, Kali, Babs, Caramel, Thomas, Percy, Angel, Clover, Cody, Thumper, Larry, and the rest...
"Merry (unpolitically correct) Christmas to all!"