Dear Friends,
We all know that 2020 has been an extremely difficult year. Natural disasters and protests, rioting, and unrest in the streets were rampant all around the world, and in the U.S., we endured an especially contentious election. On top of all that, there was a COVID-19 outbreak. We were all tested to our limits this year, and I have heard more than a few folks express their hope that 2021 will be quite different.
Many of the children enrolled in the Children Incorporated sponsorship program dream, anticipate, and hope for brighter days, and our organization helps their hopes and dreams become reality for them.
I, for one, choose to anticipate better days ahead. In the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific, the lead character, Nellie Forbush, performs a song entitled “A Cock-Eyed Optimist.” Therein, Nellie proclaims that she is “stuck like a dope with a thing called hope” that she cannot get out of her heart. If only more people were like this character, dreaming, anticipating, and hoping for brighter days, well, the world would be a much kinder place.
Many of the children enrolled in the Children Incorporated sponsorship program dream, anticipate, and hope for brighter days, and our organization helps their hopes and dreams become reality for them.
The poverty that encircles the children in our program can be crippling, and it is easy for them — both the children we serve and their parents and guardians — to lose hope for better days ahead, yet Children Incorporated is always working to keep that hope alive. You would simply be amazed at what a warm jacket can mean to a West Virginian child in the dead of winter, or what a new pair of shoes can mean to a child in India as he or she walks miles each way, to and from school, on a daily basis. The importance of a backpack full of food, to get a child and family in Eastern Kentucky through a long otherwise foodless weekend, cannot be underestimated, nor can the significance of a bag of rice, beans, or flour for a child and family in Guatemala.
The scope of our work is vast and broad. From the simple things mentioned above to much larger offerings, Children Incorporated works to keep hope alive and to offer opportunities to those whose lives can be quite difficult. We provide resources for education and learning, such as laptops and iPads, school books, and even desks, as well as training to better equip young people for careers once they graduate from high school. We realize that keeping hope alive matters greatly.
I am asking that you consider making an important donation to our Annual Fund so that together, we can continue our work in 2021.
I know the value of our work. I’ve seen it first-hand. I’ve talked to parents whose appreciation is heart-deep, and I have looked into the eyes of children and young people and listened as they have raved about the support they receive from their sponsors. I’ve met with our wonderful volunteer coordinators and heard them share what the support we offer, by way of loyal sponsors and donors like you, means to the children and families they serve, as well as to the communities in which they live and work. For these reasons, I am asking that you consider making an important donation to our Annual Fund so that together, we can continue our work in 2021.
Nellie Forbush, the character in South Pacific that I mentioned earlier, was “stuck like a dope with a thing called hope,” and so am I. Beyond that, I am blessed to see hope being kept alive and dreams being made reality through the simple caring of so many good people who care, and care deeply. You are those people, and I sincerely thank you for supporting Children Incorporated’s work and for the possibilities that we, together, are providing to many children.
From the heart,
Ronald H. Carter
President and CEO
Children Incorporated