Pay if Forward, Mamas

I am a firm believer in the “pay it forward” mantra. My family and I practice it regularly in many forms:

* Donating time and money to charities
* Giving blood
* Participating in the America Heart Walk
* Loaning money thru Kiva
* Helping folks in need – including motorcycle crashes, kayakers who have broken their paddles and need a tow across a lake, and regularly rescuing lost dogs

But yesterday I had an experience that made me think of a new way to pay it forward…”pay it forward mamas”. Here is the story.

Earlier this year I worked with the Employee Foundation at work to secure a $32k grant for Parents Helping Parents (PHP). This is another one of those “pay it forward” things. PHP is a tremendous organization that assists parents who have kids with special needs – including Autism, Downs Syndrome, Learning Disabilities, etc. I have had the good fortune of utilizing PHP in my journey to understand and treat my Gracie’s dyslexia. I was so thankful for their assistance and the good fortune that we have as a family to have the resources to most effectively deal with dyslexia. My daughter and I decided we needed to find a way to show our gratitude. The grant was what we did.

So – yesterday out of the blue, I got an email from another Yahoo who I don’t know.

Hi Chris,
I just read about the YEF Grant you sponsored for PHP – great job! I am the mom of a 3 year old recently diagnosed with a Autism so I have just become connected with PHP and am finding it a very useful resource! Thank you!
Jean


Wow! That email stopped me in my tracks. It is so simple but was so powerful. It made me remember back to getting the grant and how happy it made me to do a good deed for such a positive organization. But more than that it warmed my heart that a mom, I don’t even know, took the time to reach out to another mom and say thank you for something I did!

So this is how “pay it forward mamas” was born. Going forward, I am going to make a point to tell another mom when I think she is doing something great – whether it be for her kids, for herself or for her community. And I challenge all the moms out there to do the same thing! We all work so hard – wouldn’t it be powerful if we recognized each other for our hard work and commitment to what is important to us all!

Go forth and “Pay if Forward, Mamas!”