Dear United Way Friends,
I hope this note continues to find you and yours safe and healthy.
I want to thank you for the kind responses to my last note. This month as we celebrate Black History Month, I’d like to highlight Amanda Gorman, the remarkable young poet. You may recognize her from her performance at the inauguration and/or during the Super Bowl Pre-Show.
Amanda Gorman is the first National Youth Poet Laureate. She initially came to our attention over the summer when United Way and Truist (formerly BB&T) partnered on a new ad campaign focused on a message of unity. Miss Gorman’s poem drove home a powerful and hopeful message about the opportunity ahead to build a better community, where every person is respected, every voice is heard, and every person thrives.
As I said in my note last month, it is okay to not be okay. Sometimes we need someone or something from outside our scope of the world to help us see a different perspective and restore our hope. On Ansonia street in the Bowen Park community, one of the neighborhoods in our Place Matters footprint, we recently witnessed a family receive the keys to their new home. We saw the words “…the opportunity ahead to build a better community…” become real. It is truly remarkable to witness and know the life-changing implications of this action.
What seems small in the grand scheme of everything happening is huge for this family and the Bowen Park neighborhood.
On Ansonia Street there are approximately 25 houses, but only nine homeowners. We at United Way of Forsyth County have played a part in helping eight of those nine individuals become homeowners. Of course, that means you, as a donor, have played a part to make it possible too.
There are many things that give me hope but this accomplishment makes real for me the promise of brighter futures for everyone in our community. It proves that while words can impact our emotions, actions can change our lives.
Amanda Gorman closed her Inaugural poem with the following words:
For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
We all have it in our power to be the light that helps illuminate the path for someone else. I am confident that our bravery will allow us to reimagine and rebuild and I cannot wait to see where it takes us.
As always, thank you for LIVING UNITED.
Sincerely,
Cindy Gordineer
President and CEO of United Way of Forsyth County