Although I’m having trouble finding out more about someone named Janice Maeditere, they’re quoted in many places on the web as having said something about Christmas that I find particularly profound…
“Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as it is opening our hearts.”
On December 8th, the Center for Respectful Leadership held its CEO Summit and CEO’s Give Back Bash in San Diego and both were an absolute blast. Typically, when we invite people to our annual events, we urge them informally to donate to a worthy cause of their choice. But this year, CRL staff recommended that we up our game and name a specific charity that we’d like CRL and our guests to donate to. For us, the choice was obvious: the Alpha Project, which is dedicated to helping the homeless in San Diego.
The Alpha Project is an amazing organization that serves over 4,000 people in “America’s Finest City” every single day. They are tirelessly dedicated to helping people who are motivated to change their lives and achieve self-sufficiency by providing them with work, recovery, housing, and support services.
And we decided to follow Janice Maeditere’s advice and open our hearts by committing to donate all proceeds from our ticket sales and the contributions from our generous sponsors to the Alpha Project – a total of $8,250.
Over 100 people attended and that night, during the bash, our entertainer/sponsor – John Grindle of Grin Events – encouraged everyone to get out their phones and donate directly to the Alpha Project, which they did, very, very generously to the tune of over $7,750! We were truly surprised at how many people opened their hearts and wallets that night. No one more so than Bob McElroy, the CEO of the Alpha Project, who said to the group, “You are the most amazingly, wonderfully wild and generous group I’ve ever met!” (Note: the check in the photo above was written before the final tally of donations came in!)
So, what I’ve learned from this experience is despite all of the challenges and disrespect and upset we may be facing in our lives and in our world, opening and giving from our hearts is still something most of us still want to do. Bravo.
And special thanks to our sponsors…
Pictured above: CRL’s Exec. Dir. Gregg Ward (center, black turtleneck) with Bob McElroy, CEO of the Alpha Project, and many of the generous attendees and staff at the CRL Annual CEO’s Give Back Bash.
