Brenda learns we are sending her to school!

I told Brenda last week that I had a surprise for her on Tuesday night. She has been anticipating it with excitement. She arrived at our house to a backyard gathering of people who love her and Becky. I took a moment to tell her that we were having a special dinner in her honor and everyone came to be with her. There would be another surprise later in the evening, but first we ate. She asked for identification of the quinoa salad and the coleslaw, but was familiar with the cheeseburger. Thanks to our experience at a drive thru a couple months back she is a cheeseburger fan. 

After eating I took a moment, surrounded by friends and family, to tell Brenda about the scholarship we are collecting. I told her that we have saved enough money to pay her bills for half the school year already, and we will keep collecting donations for as long as it takes to get her through the entire school year. 

DONATION PLUG: If you haven't joined Brenda's team of angels, there is still a need! This is going to take a very large team!  I dare you to find a better cause for your moo-la. 

Her reaction to the news was joyous, humble, and ran the spectrum of emotions. Laughter to tears to laughter again. These beautiful photos capture a fraction of the energy shared. 

Thanks to Mike Jewell for the amazing shots!

  

In Brenda's words -
Thank you everyone. I love you everyone. Thank you so much. I'm going to school! I'm going to school! 
Always in my life I see people going to school and I think, "That is not my chance. I am nobody." Now I will go to school! I never believe! Thank you everybody. 

For me, this has been surreal and we are just over half way there. The donations have come from every nook and cranny spanning my entire life - elementary and high school friends, summer camp fellow counselors, former missionaries in Chile, families of my current students, and so forth. There are so many to thank. Please know how trans formative this effort will be for Brenda. There is no better team to be on.  Keep sharing the effort. It's totally worth it.

The reveal was humbling...

Brenda was thrilled, overwhelmed, and elated. 

She is totally worthy of a scholarship.

To date we've collected just over half of the money we need to send her to school for one year. If you haven't donated yet, please consider what you can do to be one of Brenda's angels. PayPal your tax deductible contributions to ewilliams@foothillsschool.org  

Brenda says she won't sleep for days because she is so excited to go to school, but I bid you a good night. More photos and stories of this wonderful evening to come tomorrow. 

More Fun with Firsts

Last week Brenda and I went to Costco. Since you can buy nothing at that store without it being super-sized, I gave one of my cantaloupes to Brenda to try at home. I told her it was a melon, told her what it's called, and told her to slice it open and remove the seeds. However, I did not think to tell her that it did not need to be cooked.

After frying one half in her sauce pan she tasted it and found that she may not have needed to cook it. She ate the other half raw and says that she now likes cantaloupe. 

Today Brenda received a little pampering courtesy of Gretchen Nishitani, photographer and nail tech extraordinaire. Gretchen was looking to pay it forward for the generosity and love she has in her life and asked for nominations for a free pedi. Guess who I nominated? 

Thank you Gretchen. Brenda felt loved today.

A Generous Heart

Brenda gave me a pair of flip flops from Africa. They are black and beaded and beautiful. She wears a similar pair and had me try hers on a couple of weeks ago and said she had a surprise for me. Shortly after, she arrived with a gift for me. Now we can match. We didn't even plan the toes matching. We just have the same style I guess.

I almost slipped up and told Brenda that I have a secret myself. Today we were talking about her desire to go to school in the fall and I could hardly keep from blurting out, "WE'VE RAISED MORE THAN $3100 for you!" But I kept it in. I didn't tell. I want to have at least $4000 before she gets her hopes up.

So if you haven't donated, now is a perfect time. School starts in a month and I don't know how much longer I can keep this a secret.

Let's Send Brenda to School This Fall

Friends who read this blog,
Hopefully you all have heard the call to action to help Brenda receive the opportunity to go to school full time beginning this fall.  

Because she is under 21 years old, she qualifies to attend full time public high school at a local school for teen moms. She is 20 years old. The school is free, but her living expenses for her and Becky remain a reality. They need to pay rent, buy food and living needs, pay for transportation, and pay utilities. Her monthly expenses are around $1000. In order for her to attend school, we are looking to raise $10,000 for her to have her living expenses covered so she can begin attending school full time instead of working full time.

Like me, you might feel skeptical that $10,000 can be raised in such a short amount of time. Well, so far there have been almost $2000 in donations! This after less than a week looking for kind hearts to open their checkbooks. We only have $8000 to go and remember, we only need $1000 a month, so if you are willing to make a donation now and again in the future we can count on making the $10,000 goal by the end of the school year.

Please consider giving to this scholarship. As a teacher, mom of three kids, with a husband climbing his way out of a real estate career hole I completely understand how it feels to have the bank accounts pretty shallow. However, I have come up with some ideas on how to make a donation, even without a big surplus of cash laying around.

1. Fast for a day and take the money you would have spent on food and donate it to Brenda's scholarship fund. (Yes, I stole this one from the scriptures.) Brenda and Becky have had plenty of days they've gone without food and as you feel your tummy rumble you can think of them and feel great about the sacrifice you are making. 
2. Have a yard sale and give the profit or a percentage of it to the scholarship fund.
3. Have your kids get involved and have a bake sale or lemonade stand. 
4. Invite your family members to give a donation to the scholarship for your birthday present. (Hopefully your birthday is soon!)
5. Dig deep. I know sometimes it feels like you can't afford to give anything more than what you already have to pay for. Well, I bet if you think for even a little while, you will figure out a way to make this happen.

Brenda has nobody to make this happen except us. If you are reading this blog, you are one of a very small number of people who know she is in need. Please do anything you can to help. I know I sound like I'm begging. That's because I am. 

Thank you.

Established Yesterday - The Send Brenda to School Scholarship Fund

Yesterday seven of my Facebook friends donated a total of $345 toward the $10,000 goal to pay for Brenda and Becky's living expenses so Brenda can focus on going to school full time at the Marian Pritchett School. That is a great start for one day! The school is free but rent, utilities, clothes, food etc are still needed. Many people would assume that a woman like Brenda would have rent assistance. She does not. The only government assistance she and Becky receive is Medicaid insurance, a portion of child care costs, and some money for basic food. This does not cover transportation to and from work, laundry soap, hygiene products, clothes or anything else.

I went to sleep last night with my heart so full of gratitude it felt crowded beneath my rib cage. Frankly, the people who gave money were not those you might expect. All of them are people I met in Junior High and High School. They don't know me well. I haven't kept in touch with them. They live all over the nation. They are from diverse walks of life and share no common religious or cultural tie that would cause them to donate. They share only a compassionate heart and the willingness to act on it and make a PayPal donation. The donations came in many sizes. Everyone gave what they could right now.

I wish you all could meet Brenda. If you spent 15 minutes with her you'd give all you can to make school a reality for her. Thank you for trusting my words and I hope you want to be a part of this.  If you'd like to donate to the cause you can send a PayPal payment to ewilliams@foothillsschool.org.

How it works
All donations will sit in the PayPal account until late August when I move the money to an official educational account through the school where I work. I will formally create a scholarship through the 501c3 so donors can receive a tax write off. The money will be presented to Brenda at $1000 per month as long as she is attending school full time. Please let me know if you have any questions.  

Summer and the End of the Honeymoon

Brenda and Becky arrived to their new home in the dead of winter. Leaving Uganda and arriving in Boise's winter climate must have been an incredible shock. But they took it in stride, learning to navigate walking on the slippery, ice covered sidewalks. Brenda recalls the agonizing walks home on days the buses quit running before they were able to go back to their end of town. (The difficulty navigating the Boise bus system is a completely post-worthy topic and I'll have to save that for another day.) Now we are in July and the peek of summer heat is upon us. Last week's temperatures of 108 degrees were not much easier to bare than the freezing cold of winter. At least we got the thermostat figured out before the heat hit! (See the "It Got Hot" post.) This week we introduced them to the wonderful world of snow cones and riding scooters down the sidewalk. Brenda did not like the snow cone, because she hates sugary things, so she had plain shaved ice. Becky however will grow up a regular old American kid, and had no trouble with the pink and yellow snow cone.

Brenda is working 5-6 days a week now at Inn America and Becky attends Montessori School 5 days a week and goes to a babysitter on the weekends while Brenda works. Life has settled in for them here in Boise. The primary purpose of the Agency for New Americans is to assist refugees in becoming self-sufficient, knowing that they do not receive much financial support once they arrive in the USA. Brenda receives no housing assistance anymore and only basic food and health care assistance. I'm not sure how much longer her Medicaid insurance will last since she is working now. The honeymoon is officially over for Brenda, and it's now up to her to make sure the bills are getting paid.

For the most part I strive to keep this blog positive, highlighting the adventures and exciting discoveries Brenda and Becky have here. Unfortunately, Brenda is facing a few very real and big challenges ahead of her so I feel like it should be shared here if this is a true account of their first months in Boise.
1. Brenda needs to go to school.
2. Brenda's job is making her sick and is really disgusting.
3. The public transportation system in Boise is so difficult to navigate! Buses are infrequent, the hours of operation are pretty bad, and routes are indirect. She needs to finish drivers training and get a car.

For today's post I'll just take on problem #1.

Brenda is 20 years old, and wants more than anything in this world to be able to go to school. She has an opportunity to study at the Marian Pritchett School until she is 21 years old. It is a free, public school serving teen moms. Although the one year she has left qualifying under this program would not get her a high school diploma nor GED, it would give her the only free option for 9 months of full time school. She needs to be able to do this.

She also needs to be able to pay her bills, which come to around $1000 a month.

Mary, the wonderful woman who owns Lakewood Montessori (a champion for Becky's education) has made a bold challenge; raise $10,000 for Brenda to have a scholarship to allow her to attend high school for one year.

I already know one willing angel with $1000 in her wings. She's donating it knowing it will get the ball rolling and inspire others to give. This week I will be setting up a PayPal fund for donations to this scholarship. If you or someone you know is able to donate, please send payment via PayPal to ewilliams@foothillsschool.org . Would your employer donate? Do your parents like giving to great causes? Would your kids do a lemonade stand and have the proceeds go to this scholarship? I am going to look into running all the donations through a 501c3, so donors can receive a tax deduction. Please stay posted, but contact me immediately if you are able to donate. In Mary's words, "All we need is 20 people to donate $500! We can do that!" Whether you have $500 or $5, it will make a difference in Brenda's life.

Let's send Brenda to school!