Gratitude is often defined as being thankful and showing appreciation. The holidays are a natural
time to express gratitude for others and I love that aspect of the holiday
season. Yet the unexpected acts of gratitude can also create a lasting memory.
I believe to have a grateful attitude is an important way to live a joyful
life. Today I want to share a story of unexpected gratitude that touched my family’s
heart recently and how Team National Hope is happy to keep helping others by
providing hope and financial support.
In early 2020, a grant request came to Team National Hope from Platinum Ginger Jordan, a
breast cancer survivor, to donate to a breast cancer support organization, Pink
Sisters of Sabine. Pink Sisters is a non-profit charity that supports breast
cancer patients in a variety of ways along their cancer journey. Team National
Hope was happy to send them a donation in Ginger’s honor and to help them
continue to help breast cancer survivors. Yet we did not know how personal that
donation would become. In September 2020, Team National Hope co-founder and my
mom, MaryLou Loehr, was diagnosed with breast cancer. I shared my mom’s
diagnosis with Ginger Jordan as a friend and breast cancer survivor. I did not
recall at that time, that months earlier Ginger had requested a donation for an
organization she was passionate about which she supported. Ginger has been a
great resource and friend to me and MaryLou on her journey. Ginger connected
with the Pink Sisters of Sabine on my mom’s behalf and they sent MaryLou a
lovely gift bag to encourage her on her new journey. The pink gift bag brought
a smile to the faces of MaryLou and I both, because of the thoughtful nature of
it. It was filled with useful gifts that only a fellow breast cancer survivor
would think to send, like a drain tube bag for showering and a seatbelt pillow.
The items enclosed were awesome and useful! As we went through the bag, I told
my mom the name sounded familiar and that maybe Team National Hope had
supported them in the past. I investigated it and yep, we had given them a
donation several months before in honor of Ginger. As Phil Chrysler, my husband
and Team National Hope co-founder shares often, we like to make people “a hero
in their hometown.
We are grateful we have the ability to do just that by granting requests regularly. We
had no idea that that one act of kindness would cause another very personal act
of kindness for co-founder MaryLou Loehr; yet that philosophy is what Team
National Hope was founded on. It is the butterfly effect that one small act affects
another. I am so glad that the Pink Sisters were one of the requested charities
we supported in 2020 for what they do, but I am also very grateful that they
chose to bless MaryLou as well with their kindness in her breast cancer
journey.
Thank you to all that have supported Team National Hope and given us the ability to bless
others. As you make plans this holiday season for year-end giving, please
consider Team National Hope. There are special, advantageous tax rules in 2020
due to the CARES Act.
Please connect with your tax planning advisor for more
details about the unique benefits of giving in 2020.
Wishing you good health, happiness and hope today and always.
Angela