Congratulations to You
I accepted a thing on your behalf tonight, People Who Live in My Computer. There's some information about it here, in case you'd like to see what you've done.
While accepting that award that actually belongs to you, I told a little story. It's the detailed story of the moment that really triggered Christmas Crazy. I've written around it, but never just said it. Alas.
A lifetime ago, I worked for a company that sold case management software to domestic violence and sexual assault agencies. The software was used to track demographic and service information about the people that the agencies help. At the end of the day, the purpose was to produce reports so that the agencies could get funding.
Anyway, while I worked for that company, one of my tasks was to set up new agencies on the software. To do that, I had to move the agency data from their old system to their new one. Oftentimes, that old system was a stack of folders and papers. Other times it was an Excel spreadsheet. The point is those types of agencies don't have money to spend, so many things were handled the hard way.
As were new software implementations.
I manually entered a lot of the data needed for a new implementation. It was the fastest way to get the work done, so I would sit and peck at the keyboard, entering people into the new software. Names and addresses and codes and data would move through my fingers. One day, I was entering data like a fiend ... 407, 713, 824 ... I kept entering codes and entering codes and entering codes.
His name was Jaylen. The numbers represented what had happened to cause him to need services. 407 meant he had been burned with a cigarette. The other numbers meant assault with a deadly weapon and he had witnessed a murder and and and and ... the list went on. Jaylen had been through a lot.
Jaylen was six.
In that moment, Jaylen was a person who lived in my computer. I had no way of doing anything to change his world, but he was a very important person who lived in my computer. He stayed with me.
Years went by and I became a mom and a mom blogger. Many of you have been along for the ride while I wrote about the nightmare that is potty training, the stupidity that is the tooth fairy, and the fact that I don't understand why children hate sleep. Total. Mom. Blogger.
But, you gave me an opportunity. You have me the opportunity to do something a little bigger and to use this space to sometimes make life a little better for kids like Jaylen. One thing led to another led to another and at this point in time, you've made it possible for hundreds of kids to have a better Christmas.
So, congratulations on your award. You've earned it and then some. Thanks for letting me go along for the ride and for being amazingly fantastic People Who Live in My Computer
Stay tuned for our next thing, by the way. We're going to fix this.
That's the "yard" at Center for Victim's shelter. It's the only outdoor space kids have while they're staying there. We can make it better, don't you think?
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Reader Comments (5)
LOVE!
All the smiles. :o)
That yard needs some twinkle lights for nighttime fun. Put me down for some of those.
Absolutely! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do good.
Oh we can definitely make it better. I'm in!