Transcript
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So I asked one of my friends who does social media, Aaron
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Pearson, who's with BitBranding, if you know him. I said, will
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you meet me for coffee? I'm gonna bring my computer. Can you tell me what
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this means? I don't I have no idea what it means. So
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we met a couple days later, and he said as he
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was looking at all these insights, I guess they're called,
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he said, wow. I don't normally see this.
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He said, I think God has a calling for you. And I said, what do
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you mean? He said, well, in your first post, you reached a
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104,000 people. 1100
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people interacted by liking it or, you know, loved
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it, whatever it was. And then 356 people have
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shared that post. He said Hello,
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and welcome to Cherry at Work, where we explore the power of
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giving right here in Allen and Fairview. I'm
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your host, Kimber Quinn, and I'll be guiding you through the impactful
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stories of local charities that are making a real
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difference in our community. Each episode, we'll meet the
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incredible people behind these organizations, worry about their
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missions and discover how you can get involved. Whether you're
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looking to volunteer, donate, or simply learn more,
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this is your platform to engage and inspire
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change. Welcome to the very first episode of
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Charity at Work, where we are going to talk to Lolo Roberts
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about the incredible things that she's doing in Allen and Fairview.
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Let's get started. Hi, and welcome to the
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Allen Fairview podcast, where today we are
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meeting with Lolo Roberts, and she is going to talk to
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us about grateful gratitude. So thank you, Lolo. We're
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so glad that you're with us today and can't wait to hear about your story.
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Oh, I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Anytime I can,
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get in front of someone and explain what's happening in our community, I
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absolutely think that's an amazing opportunity. Very good. Okay.
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So I have to start from the very beginning. Tell
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me about Lolo. Where did Lolo come
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from, and how does this play into who you are?
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Okay. I founded Grateful Gratitude,
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almost 7 years ago. And the year
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before founding it, our family went through a lot of
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tragedies and a lot of, ups and downs.
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So a year before founding it, my
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son-in-law graduated from OU. He
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retired from gymnastics. He,
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he and my daughter got married. They
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went on their honeymoon. And while they were on their honeymoon, we had a
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34 year old family member pass away of brain, cancer.
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Then she found out they found out they were pregnant, and
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then her father passed away a month later. But
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all those things happened within the 1st 6 weeks
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of May June of 2027. So, you know,
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normally, we have one life incident, which was either a
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marriage, a death, a move in their house, and they had
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all 7 in 1 year, believe it or not. And that
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caused my daughter to spiral with her OCD and
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anxiety, and we ended up in a really dark place.
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Her being pregnant, she decided not to take her antianxiety
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medication, which was kinda what started
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that spiral down. So we had about a 8
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week journey of healing her and, getting
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her back, to a place of confidence and,
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being able to function. And she asked me at that time, she
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said, what's your grandma name gonna be?
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And I said Lolo, and she didn't say another
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thing about it. But I just knew at that point that's what my grandma
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name was gonna be. That was in September. And
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then in January, our little Levi was born healthy
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and happy. And I just said at that time,
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I am going to start blogging and
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doing things as Lolo because it will pay homage to
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god and the walk he brought us through. So even though
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many, many people know me as Laurie, when I hear Lolo,
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it just kinda humbles me for a moment and realize how blessed I
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was. Well, that already brings tears to my eyes to
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hear your story. I I love that. I love that, and I
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can only imagine when people call you Lolo what what that
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means to you. So thank you for sharing that. And I know
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you mentioned so that all happened in 2017. Is
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that right? So I know when I was reading your bio,
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you said in 2018, you really felt a
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calling from God. And so so tell me, I think I would imagine
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everything you just shared with us led you to that, but
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tell me about that experience. Tell me about what you felt and
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the whispers that you heard that brought you to where you
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are. Take us back to 2018. So it was,
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March 12, 2018. And at
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the time, I was selling promotional products. I was working full time,
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and I was sitting right here at this desk. And it was about 138,
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11:38. I can't really remember. Midday. And I just couldn't even
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write the order I was writing. It was like I was at a dead
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stop, and I just felt filled with
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the urge from God to write a blog about gratitude.
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And I just felt so strongly that he was saying,
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you live in Allen, Texas, which is a wealthy
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community, Fairview around Dallas. I'm
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surrounding you and all your friends and the people you come in contact
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with every day with blessings, and
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nobody's recognized them. I want you to write a blog about
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gratitude and how to practice gratitude. Well, I
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kinda sat there, and I thought, you know, you're just overwhelmed, and you know this
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is a task that you have to do. So all I had
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ever heard about was WordPress. I'd never read a blog. I
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went I wrote the blog, just very simply, and
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it's still up. You can still see it. And
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after I wrote it, I pushed publish, and
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I'm like, oh my gosh. There's no way to pull this back in. It's out
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there. I'm so vulnerable, and you know how we kinda feel. Then I
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thought, well, who's gonna read this? Nobody's gonna know how to find this. So I
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started a Facebook page called Grateful Gratitude.
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And one of the very first posts was, may god use me to change lives.
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And I started asking all my chamber friends and everybody, please go like
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this page. You know, maybe read the blog. I don't know why, but you have
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to. Well, within about 7 days' time, I
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got, an email from Facebook saying
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something about algorithms and things I did not understand.
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So I asked one of my friends who does social media, Aaron
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Pearson, who's with BitBranding, if you know him. I said, will you
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meet me for coffee? I'm gonna bring my computer. Can you tell me what this
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means? I don't I have no idea what it means. So we
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met a couple days later, and he said as he
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was looking at all these insights, I guess they're called,
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he said, wow. I don't normally see this.
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He said, I think God has a calling for you. And I said, what do
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you mean? He said, well, in your first post, you reached a
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104,000 people. 1100
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people interacted by liking it or, you know, loved
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it, whatever it was. And then 356 people
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have shared that post. He said, you just don't see this.
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So I thought to myself, I'm like, okay. I did the blog.
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God's gonna support it. Where do I go from here? And
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within a month's time, you know, I really thought I was gonna be a
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motivational speaker and speak corporately to places
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about how to have better gratitude with customer
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service, employee relations, and make it a
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new career. Well, of course, god had a totally different idea.
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And, within a month's time, I
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had an advocate from the Allen Police Department, chance
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meeting at a chamber meeting, come up to me and said,
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you know, I'm not allowed to pray pray over
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victims of violent crime. I can't bring god into it.
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Would you bring your tray of hearts, which we can talk about the gratitude hearts?
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Will you bring your hearts into the police station, offer them
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to one of our victims, and then pray over them so that
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we really kinda complete the cycle of healing for them? So at
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that point, I kinda knew that God was gonna make this a ministry instead
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of a career. So there you go. I have chill bumps.
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I first of all, I think we're I think we're soul sisters. I
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love your thoughts around customer service and serving
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others and gratitude. That is what I have a heart for as well. So this,
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I don't think, is a chance meeting either. So thank
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thank you for sharing that. I actually have my
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gratitude heart. I attended a
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chamber banquet a couple of years ago. I lose
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track of time sometimes, and these were at the tables.
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And we we actually collected some that were left and
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have been able to share those along the way, and this this
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one actually lives in our guest room next to next to the bed on
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the tray. I just think it's always a reminder for the people that come and
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stay with us, but also that we're grateful for those friendships.
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So so perfect lead in for your heart. Do you
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wanna talk about those for a second? Absolutely.
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Again, it's another god story.
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Because after I did the blog, 2 weeks later, I walked
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into, my church, and I go to Chase Oaks
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Church at Legacy in 75, and they were doing a fair
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trade market. And there's a little store in
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McKinney called Fair and Square, and you may have been there. But they were
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there that day selling coffee and, you
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know, little dolls that have been made in Ghana and different things. And then
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I saw the hearts, and the hearts are hand
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carved in Kenya. And they had some that were an aqua blue,
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which is really a very calming, endearing color to me, and
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it said gratitude on it. And I said, okay. I need to
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buy some of these. So I bought 5 of them because they were
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$5 a piece, and I'm like, you know, I don't wanna go too deep into
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this. And I said, I'm just gonna start handing these out to people
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that I'm grateful for. And I proceeded into
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church. And that day, Blake Bergstrom was
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our teaching pastor, and he his whole sermon was, you
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know, what is your purpose and why did god even bring you here
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today? And, again, you know, it just all rolls together.
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So the the hearts that are hand carved in Kenya take
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about 3 to 4 hours apiece. They really are a
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work of art because they come from a block of soapstone,
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and they're hit with a machete. Believe it or not, one of those huge knives
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because they don't have all the processing tools that we do and manufacturing
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tools that we have in the US, and they hit it until it it comes
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into a heart shape. And then they
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sand it. They use natural dyes on it, and then
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they either carve words into it or they'll carve designs.
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And so, of course, I was going to McKinney pretty
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often buying these little stones, and the owners were
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giving me a discount. They were selling them for 375, but, really,
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I couldn't do I can't make any money to do anything. I couldn't
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fundraise. So I went straight to the importer,
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because at this time, I was buying about a 100 at a time.
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Went straight to the importer, and I now buy them directly. And
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there's a village of 20 artisans that these
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hearts come from that, are just beautiful people,
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and then I buy them. My grandson, when
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he was 2, started opening them all with me. We
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pray over them, and then we just put them out in the community.
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And I have purchased, sold, or
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gifted over 65100 in that time.
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So we get big huge boxes of rocks in now. So it's
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just everything just aligned with god's plan. And,
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luckily, I was faithfully trying to be obedient in his work.
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Well, in what an incredible way. Some something that is is
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so small, but that continues to have a ripple
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effect that that you've passed it probably in areas that you
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don't even know that people have continued to pass them down and
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just have reminders of being grateful for the things we have and
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people that come into our lives. Yeah. So so tell me even if
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I take you back, we did the we did the blog,
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and you felt the continued calling. And
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so how did your grateful gratitude
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foundation come about? So starting with the blog, kind of
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carry us forward with that. So that was in
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March, and I realized when I was
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going, assisting more and more advocates with their
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clients that it wasn't about the money. And
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so I don't know if you remember, but in the fall of
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2018, the government actually shut down for a while. And
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that's when I thought, oh, yeah. I I think I wanna be a nonprofit because
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I wanna quit my job. I wanna focus truly on this. And,
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of course, my husband gave me his blessing and said, yeah. You know, this is
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I thought was a hobby, but I see it's a ministry. So, you know,
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do what's gonna make you happy. So I filed
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for the nonprofit, and it said on there, you know,
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you do it online, and then you also submit some paperwork. And it
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said, you know, the government's closed right now, which was kinda to me
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saying nonprofits are not our priority. Please don't
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reach out to us for at least 60 days for us to have time
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to process this. So, that was
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December 18th, and I thought, well, it's a wing and a prayer. I'm gonna send
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it out, sent my check and everything, and I put on my calendar
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a little reminder to, hey. February, we need to follow-up, see
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where we're at on this because I wanted to be able
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to sell the hearts and be able to have people,
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claim it as a donation. So anyhow, long and short of
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it is February 18th walked to the
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mailbox, and there was my nonprofit. And the IRS
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had approved it, and it was like, okay. You know, this is
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where I've gotta go. So for the 1st 2 years, I worked
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directly and only with victims of violent crime and single
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moms, assisting them when they were in crisis. I then moved
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to helping the homeless. I set up a fruit stand
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every week for the homeless to have fresh fruit at Hope restored
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mission. And then God, last October a year ago,
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brought me to a beautiful group of senior citizens that were food
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insecure. And so that's where we stand today.
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Howdy, friends. Super Dave Quinn here. Thinking about expanding or
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relocating your business in Collin County? Come discover Fairview,
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00:15:50,465 --> 00:15:54,225
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an unbeatable quality of life. But don't just take my word for it.
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Tune in to the Getting Neighborly podcast to meet your future neighbors and hear
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your life. Visit us today at Fairview
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texasebc.com. Thanks.
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Make it a great day. Okay. So are you still focusing all in
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on all of those areas? The the homeless, single
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moms, victims of violent crimes, and
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now seniors who are food
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insecure. So I will help anyone
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in crisis. And, you know, it's kinda funny. My advisory board is like,
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you need to hang down. You gotta narrow it down. You you got too
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many people you help. And I said, but that's where I'm called. If
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someone says I need something like, I do still work with the Allen Police
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Department, helping them. Matter of fact, the other day, they needed
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assistance for an autistic child to have a
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basketball hoop and, you know, an outdoor one. And it was, like,
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a $100. So being a small nonprofit, we're able to
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do that. You know, you probably saw on Facebook
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recently, we had a single mom with 3 kids that
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needed a washer, and they, she had gone for over a
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year without that washer, and I just happened to have someone bring that need
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to me. I always put it out there, and god provides the right
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people. And so my main focus really is the food
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insecure. But if Hope restored mission calls and has a need, I'll
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be there for them as well as any of the advocates. I
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love that. And I'm thank you for talking about your partnerships also. You know, sometimes
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we don't hear how people like our police departments see
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needs and reach out to people in the community that
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are serving and have contacts that can
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help help build needs that we may not know about. So thanks for sharing
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that too. So let's talk about your
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project with the seniors. Tell us more about that.
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Okay. So in Plano, there is a community
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of 240 apartments, and it is a tax credit
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building, which means low income. And
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most of the people I help get less
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than $2,000 a month all the way down to I have one person who
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gets $700 a month in Social Security benefits,
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which is nothing, really. I mean, when when we think
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about that, and then there's SNAP benefits, which
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are their food stamps. I have one lady that gives $16 a
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month, and the most I see anybody I work with get is
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$74 a month. And that's, you know, like a family
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of 2, a man and a wife. The demographic
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is 70 to 98 years old,
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all ethnicities. And, you know,
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the thing is, I am currently helping a 133
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of them every month with bringing extra groceries
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to them. But that's still if we do the math, there's a lot
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of apartments there that I haven't been able to come in
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contact with and and meet people face to face to see if they need help.
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So I really envision, since it's been a year since I've been doing this,
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we started at 34 residents that needed help. And now being a
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133, every month, it goes up and up.
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And I'll briefly tell you how I help them. The biggest thing
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that I do is once a month, I partner with Amazing Grace Food Pantry in
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Wiley. Mike and Karen Ellis have been amazing
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to help me provide £4,000 of food.
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So they bring their food truck, which
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is a huge, huge truck to the property. They'll drop
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the pallets, and then I usually have 8 to 10 volunteers be there with
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me. We set up tables, and we will set up a mini
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on-site grocery store. And, Kimber, we were talking about this a
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little bit before we started recording. And to
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me, the biggest thing is to allow these seniors
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to have dignity and to make this a
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normal thing just like they're going to the grocery store.
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And so a good portion of
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that food is actually home delivered to our homebound
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residents, and then the others come and shop. I
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love that. So, again, you're serving them where they are and,
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finding their needs and help helping. So so
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tell us, how can we help you as a community?
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Is it donation? Is it volunteering? How can we
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help you reach your mission and the goals that you
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have? Always number 1 is,
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volunteers. I always feel like, when people have
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seen my work and know my work, they tend to
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donate. But standing next to
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me and really understanding what
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what grateful gratitude does. I had so many of these
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seniors say, I don't drive anymore. I'm qualified for food, but
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I can't get there. Or someone who says, you know,
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they give me a £100 of food. They can put it in my car, but
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I can't get it out because I live on the 4th floor of this building.
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I think the most important thing is being aware and
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knowing what services are out there, whether it's grateful gratitude,
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whether it's ACO, whether it's Bell and Sparrow, whatever. Get to know a
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nonprofit. Because when you get to know a nonprofit, it
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indirectly does help me because of the ripple effect that we all
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create. Donations, when people
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will do a monthly donation and commit for a
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year, even if it's $10, $20, or $50,
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having that steady stream come in kinda helps me sleep a little
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better at night. And a lot of times, what I'll just say is, you
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know, if you're a Starbucks fiend and, you know,
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I went and picked up Starbucks, for my daughter and it had oat milk in
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it, it was $7. And I thought, you know, I could
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have given snack packs to 10 of my residents for that
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same amount of money. So when we start to correlate where we kinda
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just blow money or we could maybe have a little bit of a sacrifice for
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someone in need, I think that's that's huge. So that's the money.
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But volunteering, Also, if you have a business where you
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could collect an item for me, like pocket Kleenexes,
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those tiny little Kleenexes that my seniors are always carrying
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with them or, you know, something special. Believe it or
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not, soda is a huge treat for them. Soda is very
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expensive. So when we bring soda, it's like bringing
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$100 bills sometimes. And then always, you know, we can be very
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creative if you have an idea. I'm open to hear anything.
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Well, and I I love I mean, you're talking about volunteering. That's
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when you see the joy that you're bringing to other people. So
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money is always good. Money and items are always
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good, but as individuals, being able to really see the difference
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you're making is so important. I have a just a couple
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of more questions for you. One of the things that came to mind when you
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were talking about listening and hearing when
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God was speaking to you, do you have any advice
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for others out there that might be thinking they're receiving
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a calling of some sort or that they're being led in a
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certain direction? That can be scary, really
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scary. So talk about when you said
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yes and what other people
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how could you encourage other people that might be in that same situation?
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Well, for me, it was truly sitting silent. I
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mean, there were some really obvious things, of course. I always say God says
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she's blonde. I need to slap her in the head a little more. But the
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first thing was just to learn to trust God. And the way that I
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learned to trust him was to go back into my past
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and where was he present. My first husband and I
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you know, we're relatively new, Kimberly, to meeting each other, but I do
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tell people my first marriage, my husband was a
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workaholic that became an alcoholic
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meth addict when my daughter was very young. And God
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brought me through that so much better by relocating me here at
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to Dallas. You know, my dad had bladder cancer,
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and, you know, he came through that. My mom had melanoma. She came
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through that. I met my husband, got married, and then
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I realized that's all what God
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does. So I need to trust him. And, you know,
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if somebody is one that just can't fully throw
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themselves into their faith a 110% like I do,
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Just small things, a small prayer, and see if that prayer gets
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answered. But, really, my testimony
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is a surrender of 333 huge things before
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I really did the foundation, and my mom was diagnosed with
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melanoma. I had a family member who was going going to go through a
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divorce, and, I was $41,000
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in credit card debt that my husband didn't know about. And
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when you were sitting there with those three things, I just surrendered it, and I
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said, god, I don't know what to do. And I felt him in my heart
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say, my child, everything will be fine. So since I've had that
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little surrender and conversation, I've never
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ever had to worry about moving forward. And
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I I guess that's that may be complicated from from some people,
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but I would just say just start trusting God because he knows the plan for
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us and what will be best. Thank you. Thank you for
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sharing all that. I one of the things that I want to
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leave you with is a thought. This is an a Ralph
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Waldo Emerson quote, and I would imagine I've
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never worked in nonprofits. I but I would imagine there
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are constant struggles and worries, and you're
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worried about the people. You're worried about meeting the
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needs that you see and that are brought to you. So just
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wanted to share this with you. To know even one life has
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breathed easier because you have lived is to have succeeded.
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So I just wanna leave that thought with you. I know, I mean,
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you've touched many more lives than just one, and
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sometimes that success when we're working in, nonprofits and serving
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others, Sometimes it's hard to see it, so just
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know that. I also want to just remind you, you know, what you
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do is powerful. The lives that you're touching are powerful.
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Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for telling us
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about, grateful gratitude and your mission.
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I do wanna I wanted you to answer one final question.
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And in thinking about
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ripple effect and thinking about the struggles that
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you've had personally or with grateful gratitude,
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I wanna give you a chance to recognize one person
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that has served you, that brought you
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joy, or that when you were feeling, I can't do this
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anymore? Who's the one person that
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stood in the place of you for that slight second to
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help give you fulfillment and know that you can continue
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forward? Well, I don't think she'd want me to give
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her full name, so I'm just I'll just give her first name as Carissa.
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After starting grateful gratitude, my dad was diagnosed
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with pancreatic cancer, and he wanted to give
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away he had some new luggage, and he said, find a nonprofit
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or find somebody who can use this luggage. And I heard about
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Families to Freedom where they actually go and rescue women
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and children, in the middle of the night and bring them to the this
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area. And I reached out to them. It was during COVID.
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And I said, I have this beautiful luggage I need to
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donate. Well, the volunteer they sent was somebody who
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I didn't know. Her name was Carissa, and I had a
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grateful gratitude T shirt on when she came to get the suitcase.
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And, she said, what's grateful gratitude? And I told
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her. And that was on a Thursday evening,
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and Monday, she texted me and said, I put a little something in your mailbox
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for grateful gratitude. And that was the $500 check, which was
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huge. And once a year, whenever
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I'd have a big project, I'd send an email to Carissa, never really
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matter again face to face, and she'd always provide that check.
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And when I started feeding the food insecure senior citizens this year,
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I sent a note saying this project's
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gonna cost x amount. And she said, not only will I fund
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that, I will stand with you. And there have been times
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that I have been exhausted with this project, and she will
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be right there and say, I got this with you, girl. We're doing
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this together. And another another person, God put
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in my path, that she is helping me make that small
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ripple a huge ripple and never asking
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for anything in return. So it's to Carissa.
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Thank you, and thank you, Carissa, for stepping in
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for the rest of us. I do want to before
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we leave, tell us your website again. Tell us how people can find
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you. Okay. So it's grateful gratitude
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11.com, and there is a
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button if you'd like to make a donation or you'd like to see the artisans,
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the hearts, or the projects that I do. Do, all that information is
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there. Thank you, Lolo, and thank you to all of our
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listeners. I do just want you all as listeners to
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think about that walk Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
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Think about the lives that you touch every day, whether it's big or
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small. I want you to think about that
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ordinary acts of kindness, whether it's donations, volunteering,
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even just a smile, a conversation that you can have to give someone
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hope is how we can make a difference in our community.
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So let's all work together as a chamber, as a
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community to support those around us and those in need.
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So, again, thank you so much, Lolo, for joining us,
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and we, can't wait to watch all of the lives that you continue to
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change and impact with grateful gratitude. Thanks. Thank
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you. Thank you for joining us on Charity at Work. It was wonderful
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to share today's journey of giving and caring with you. If
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today's stories touched your heart and you wanna make a difference, remember to
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visit our show notes for more information on how to help. Don't forget
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00:30:55,090 --> 00:30:58,789
to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform to stay updated
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00:30:58,850 --> 00:31:02,445
on all the ways you can contribute to the well-being of Allen and
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00:31:02,445 --> 00:31:06,285
Fairview. Like and share this episode to spread the word and grow
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our community of givers. I'm Kimbra Quinn, and until next
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time, keep giving, keep supporting, and keep making our
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community a better place.
