Organizations Willing to Help It is the desire to help others that drives Amy. Grateful for all the help given to her sister, Amy put her energy into giving back to local charities, like Tinley Wish.
“Tinley Wish has a really good place in my heart. Not only did they step in to make some of Michelle’s bill payments, they provided a Christmas for her and my niece,” Amy recalled.
Sadly, many days Michelle was not able to work and, despite filing for disability, the bills began to pile up –including missed mortgage payments. “It’s so hard to play catch up when you fall so far behind … and she couldn’t even pay for [my niece’s] senior class pictures,” Amy posted online.
When families are in the middle of a crisis, the last thing they may consider is finding a local non-profit to help meet daily obligations. This is a lesson Amy’s family learned early: there are outreach organizations willing to help community families in need right now. “You don’t even realize they are right here in your backyard,” she said.
Amy credits a close friend for nominating her sister to Tinley Wish.
The Kindness Gala is Born Giving back isn’t just a single act for Amy…it’s an event.
Amy had written three books within a several month time period because, as she put it, “I just felt this character within me and there were three stories I wanted to tell.” The third one being A Girl With A Pink Cape, a tribute to her sister. The book is all about kindness and, with that, the idea to honor those giving to others made way for the Kindness Gala to get off the ground. If you have met Amy, you know that she has a flair about her. It stands to reason that she would want a dressy event where the spotlight can be focused on several community outreach organizations.
What makes this gala different than other benefits is that the local non-profits are not funded by million-dollar corporations intending to do research and clinical trials. Amy points out, “What my sister needed at the time was not more drugs or chemo treatments; what she needed was to have somebody drive her to treatments, or needed somebody to pay her bills so her electricity wasn’t shutoff, to have softball fees paid in order to give her daughter normalcy, or to have Christmas that year, even though she couldn’t afford it.”
That is where the community outreach programs help to fill the gaps, and exactly what the Kindness Gala intends to highlight.