The Story. The Mission. The Commitment.
The story starts when I moved out to Boston a little over two years ago. Having never lived in such a big city, I was struck by the number of homeless people I walked passed on a daily basis. Growing up in the small, relatively sheltered city of Hastings, Minnesota, I was simply unaware of this reality. Many of these men and women would ask me for money to buy food, to which I would almost always decline. It wasn't that I didn't want to help them, but I knew that giving a couple of dollars for one meal wouldn't solve the problem. I wanted to do more than just one meal. One day I decided that I would just do that. I started to make check marks in my phone every time I passed on giving money for food, committing to helping that number of people in the future. Little did I know, I had become a Midwesterner on a mission.
My mission is straightforward. I have pledged myself, both personally and professionally, to find joy in the happiness of others. This is the idea behind the Sanskrit word Mudita which can be defined simply as "Vicarious Joy". But I am choosing to make my mission bigger than just the homeless population. My aim is to help anyone who is underprivileged and over deserving.
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To do this, I have started my own business - Mudita, Ltd., of which Commonwealth Crafts is a branch. Every year I will make a commitment to at least one person or cause. So while my hand-made crafts may be small in size, the ambition behind them is not. 2/3 of every craft goes towards helping someone pursue their passion. My commitment in 2018 was to craft enough items to help one person earn their nursing assistant certification. In 2019, I fulfilled my commitment and donated $1,465 to Jewish Vocational Service (JVS), a Boston group that empowers individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers! My donation will help fund the full cost of the Academy for Healthcare training including Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training, uniform, review for the state exam, and the cost of the state exam. My commitment in 2019 is coming soon!
Thank you for helping to support my mission.
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