This past weekend I was asked to come speak at a church in Kansas as well as an open house. I was also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be interviewed by a T.V. station and radio station. All weekend I met wonderful people who care deeply about the children we work with. At each talk I gave, children were sponsored, products were purchased, and people expressed great interest in getting more involved with Angel Covers.
While speaking at a church, I was asked if I consider Angel Covers to be successful or when we'll know that this organization is successful. My first instinct was to say, "Of course Angel Covers is successful. We have volunteers around the world who work hard and give their own financial resources to travel around the world. We care for thousands of children on a regular basis and they are healthier and have a better education because of it."
But, I also started thinking about success for the children we have the privilege to work with means to them. Sometimes success for these kids isn't measurable. Instead, it's in their attitudes about life and the hope for the future. Angel Covers is successful because it has given children around the world the confidence to dream of a different life, to hope for the future, to believe in themselves…you can see it in their eyes when you meet them. The kids I have meet, seem to believe that that I’m the one who has given them this sense of relief and joy in their lives. They don’t understand yet that this isn’t from me or any of our volunteers, but from themselves. Maybe the conduit is the programs we set up, or the food we provided, but they used those things and allowed themselves to believe they are capable of achieving more than they ever thought before. AC will be successful when these girls graduate from high school or college. When the kids in Kenya graduate from high school or a trade school, and are able to support themselves and have a better life than they grew up with. When they don’t feel like they have to abandon their children as the only way to care for them, when they can work all day on a regular basis and afford to put food on the table each and every day, when they don’t contract AIDS or other diseases because they have the knowledge to prevent it….that’s also when AC will be successful. These kids look at us as if we are their hero’s, but what they don’t yet understand is that they are ours. If we can ever convey that message to them and have them truly understand it….well, I can’t think of a greater success than that. And when our first group of high school girls graduates, or the first group of Humble Hearts kids graduate, I’m going to be there tell them they are my hero’s. Because that’s what this is all about.
Kari Fillmore
