Before Long...You'll Belong

Before long.... You'll belong...

Nelson Mandela didn?t alw ays look like a visionary. In fact, for 27 years, he simply looked like a prisoner, locked up in South African jail cells for his Anti-apartheid activism. However, after his release in 1990 he became his country?s president, and today he?s celebrated not as an outlaw but as an icon of commitment and compassion.

Fortunately, visionary thinkers aren?t always imprisoned, but they are often ridiculed, marginalized, or just plain dismissed for proposing big ideas that may sound outlandish to others. Eradicating anemia for ten thousand children in the Peruvian Andes? Right, sure you will. Use a simple message "Do the Right Thing" to shift the thinking of entire communities and suggest success can be simple? Who do you think you are? Whether it is Elon Musk's vision to rocket himself to Mars, Bill Gates providing immunizations for

millions of children around the world or Matt Damon providing sanitation where toilets don't exist yet, we all want to see a better world. Some folks simply wish it were so. Others have a plan but have no way to bring it into reality and some are so close that they can almost taste the victory of accomplishment. Others are getting it done.

When you see the logos and hear the stories of the projects that we share in this magazine, we bring the impossible a tad closer to reality. William I. Johnson's Hope for Destitute People Foundation in Tanzania is finding ways to make communities self sustainable. Anthony Capra, a barber, created One for All and All for One which brings humanitarian supplies to Haiti and Cuba as well as providing free haircuts. Small ways to create sustainability, such as providing sanitary pads to girls so they won't have to miss school a week out of a month, self esteem building with art projects to develop children's mental attitude about themselves before negative influences can ill affect them. Elaine Poggi provides large photo art to hospitals because it improves healing and patient wellness. These are just a few of the heroes that we encourage you to draw closer to. These good folks have something to say and their compassion is contagious. Not everybody can hop on the next plane to Kenya or Ecuador but we can be part of the special projects that are already there. If people understood how every dollar added to the dollar of every other hero goes to provide such relief, or how a postcard with a message of hope moves a child to show up to school and get that education, so many more would arrive. Victory is impossible if we only wish for it.

We all won't be Nelson Mandelas, or Elon Musks, or Bill Gates, but where we are and what we do is appreciated just as much.

There is one more bit of good news....there is room for you too!

... A nd

YOU!