“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
With 2009 drawing to a close, we have much to celebrate, and much for which to be grateful.
Let’s begin this gratitude round-up with a spotlight on our area youth!
In our last issue, we highlighted the remarkable youth-led Fill The Dome 2009 event. These enterprising young students blew away their “75 tons, 75 thousand” goal: they collected 101 tons of food and $106,000 to fight hunger in our community! And they gathered more than 3,200 signatures acknowledging that hunger is in issue in the Fargo-Moorhead area. It’s not too late to add your name to the petition; click on the soup can at the Fill the Dome website for more info.
What an inspirational example of teamwork across more than 50 different schools! The collaboration of these students stands again as a challenge to all “adult-led” organizations to look creatively and collaboratively beyond their own borders and jurisdictions to find better solutions for our community. Kilbourne Group was proud to be a major sponsor of the regional event. Congratulations to these student organizers and volunteers, and to all who supported them!
During the 2009 flood fight, The Salvation Army’s canteen trucks and staff were “on the streets” for 62 days straight providing food, beverages, clean-up kits and emotional and spiritual support to both flood volunteers and those families displaced by the flood. This is just one example of the tremendous service The Salvation Army provides our community and all those in need.
Thank you to all who have dropped a donation in the red kettles sprinkled throughout the Fargo-Moorhead area. Your gift makes a difference! We are grateful that so many of you are choosing to give something back to the organization that gave so much to us all last spring!
Kilbourne Group had a number of cool accomplishments and accolades in 2009. You can read more about them here. Success on this scale requires a huge team effort. We offer our hearty thanks to all our customers, partners, tenants, vendors, service providers, team members and friends for helping us deliver on our mission of revitalizing downtown Fargo with Respect for the Past, Gratitude for the Present and Inspiration for the Future.
This holiday season, as a gift to yourself, make time to enjoy the magic this season holds … the sights, the sounds, the smells, the joys. Ring a bell. Give your time and attention. Get together with friends, the old and the new. Emails and smartphones and text messages will wait. To truly enjoy the magic – to experience it, to feel it – one must live in the moment and be present to that moment. Here’s to you being that “present”. Happy Holidays!