Please Help ......

...... us.
Please help each other.
Please help me.

Help us to help other widowed people.  You know there are more each day.  And many of them just like us ..... young, shocked, looking forward to the Holidays one moment and having their future pulled out from underneath them in the next.

Please consider donating to Soaring Spirits.
Please.
Thanks.

A Letter from Michele: Behind the scenes at Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation December 1, 2012 Hi there, What an amazing year 2012 has been for the community at Soaring Spirits! I can hardly believe that we will be ushering in our fifth year as an organization in 2013. With your support, SSLF has grown, adapted, and evolved as an organization. Since some of those exciting changes happen behind the scenes, I thought I'd take a minute to share with you some things you may not know about Soaring Spirits. Please bear with me...we've done a lot of work this year! Let's start with some stats...in 2012 alone, SSLF on-line programs have served over one million widowed people. Yes, one million. That number astounds me, but we are nowhere near done! When you consider that most widowed people will need multi-year support as the recreate their lives after the life altering loss of a spouse, we have only touched the surface of the difference we can make. Since the inception of the Camp Widow program in 2009, we have welcomed over 800 campers to our bi-coastal events. Oh, did I skip ahead? SSLF added the long awaited East Coast Camp Widow this year, and what an incredible experience that weekend was for everyone who attended. We have now added Camp Widow East as an annual program! This is a photo of me helping to load the truck to ship our camp supplies across the country for the first time. ---->  Our Widowed Village program, which officially launched in March of 2011, has grown to amembership of over 2,600. Every day I am inspired by the way this unique community cares for each other through the daily ups and downs of widowed life. This is a go-to resource for anyone who has been widowed. Really. If you haven't stopped by, you will find the village program HERE. This year our Widow Match program got a make over! The newly minted SSLF Pen Pal program now has a higher level of customization, every person's widowhood is verified before any Pen Pal opportunities are sent out, and we've blended the Pen Pal program with the Widowed Village program to add both functionality and additional security for our data base. Visit HERE if you'd like to check out the new look!   At Camp Widow West this year, we welcomed the Deaf community, providing interpreters throughout the weekend, and loving every minute of getting to know, and providing peer support for,  our Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. You will find 2013 Camp Widow info HERE. <-----this 5k="5k" a="a" at="at" camp="camp" campers="campers" dash="dash" diego="diego" held="held" in="in" is="is" me="me" of="of" photo="photo" rock="rock" san="san" several="several" signing="signing" span="span" the="the" widow="widow" widows="widows" with="with"> The fifth anniversary of Soaring Spirits falls on Memorial Day in 2013. Could there be a more appropriate day for our fifth anniversary? We will be rolling out a BIG new program to mark our fifth year of serving all of you, but I can't spill the beans yet. Let's just say this new effort is something our community has been asking for since the launch of SSLF. Stay tuned! Now, let's talk overhead. SSLF has one paid employee, who is an independent contractor. She receives no benefits, and her average hourly rate is $17.50 an hour. Our office space is 100% donated, as are all our office utilities. We carry general liability insurance and Board of Directors liability insurance. In 2012 we are targeted to spend 74% of our overall income on programs,and have increased our program expense by 80% this year without significantly increasing our operating costs. Our annual budget for 2012 was  $175,000. In 2013 we hired an accounting firm to conduct our first independent audit (these cost between $2,000 to $5,000 and up depending on the size of your organization) and after the audit we received an unqualified letter from the auditor confirming that we are spending our funds as mandated by our charter. That means, we are doing what we said we would do. I am more grateful than I can express for the women pictured in this photo with me (and the two who are pictured!), our Board of Directors is a dedicated team who make things happen. They work countless unpaid hours making sure that I don't lose my mind, and that SSLF continues to grow and thrive! So, what does Soaring Spirits do besides run Internet programs, and host two Camp Widow events a year? First and foremost, we are available to the widowed people we serve 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We welcome community members to our office regularly. If they need to chat, we listen. We house a huge resource database on-line, but also one in our office. The SSLF office is a hope-filled space that provides on- going in-person, as well as on-line, support. SSLF attends community events; street fairs; we are a member of the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce; we do trainings all over the country regarding our programs, (<---this a="a" about="about" address="address" advocate="advocate" amazing="amazing" are="are" association="association" awareness="awareness" community.="community." constantly="constantly" cooperatively="cooperatively" day="day" definitely="definitely" emotionally="emotionally" enough="enough" fallen="fallen" financially.="financially." firefighters="firefighters" florida="florida" for="for" from="from" growing="growing" hours="hours" in="in" is="is" many="many" me="me" national="national" need="need" needs="needs" not="not" of="of" offer.="offer." or="or" organizations="organizations" other="other" our="our" people="people" photo="photo" physically="physically" raise="raise" services="services" sharing="sharing" short="short" span="span" sslf="sslf" the="the" there="there" they="they" to="to" two="two" we="we" were="were" widowed="widowed" widows="widows" with="with" work="work"> In addition to our camps, we created the Share the Road Ride to both help support the SSLF outreach, and also help more cyclists come  home safely to their families by spreading the Share the Road message. This is a photo of me with one of our awesome volunteers as a race officials!----> What is the plan for SSLF in 2013? We have three very specific goals for the upcoming year. The first is to add the big new program that I can't tell you about yet. This is a huge undertaking, but we know that you are going to LOVE what we have in the works. The second is to work hard at developing an attainable sustainability plan. Here's the thing, operating costs are an essential part of keeping our programs running. We need adimn help desperately.  We are a true grass roots organization, without our generous donors, we would not exist. So, we have to keep finding new and creative ways to raise money to keep our doors open. Our third goal for 2013 is to better utilize our volunteer base. We have hands willing to help, we just have to create the structure through which we can organize, mobilize, and motive our amazing volunteers to carry the message that HOPE MATTERS to widowed people around the world.  The truth is, SSLF can't exist without your support. We have collectively created a community that has outgrown every one of my wildest dreams. Honestly, I hoped that my efforts in founding Soaring Spirits would help some people. I wanted other widowed people to feel less alone than I did. I didn't want the story of my life with Phil to end only in tragedy. I needed to create something positive from the pain of losing him. But never did I imagine what Soaring Spirits has become. When you consider the reach of our many programs, we are the largest support network for widowed people in the world. Just writing that sentence brings tears to my eyes. We did this together, and I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to create, and lead, this amazing community. I know you have a choice about what organizations you will support this giving season. I'd be honored if you would make a donation to Soaring Spirits that will enable us to continue doing what we do, but also to help us meet our 2013 goals. This is a photo of me, doing what I love most, reaching out to our community members! ------> You can donate HERE ,and would you please dedicate your donation to someone you love? We adore the chance to honor your love for someone who has changed your life by supporting our programs. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I wish you and yours peace, love, and memories to cherish this holiday season. Remember, love is the one thing that never dies, so open your heart wide.

This message was sent to jeggerstx@gmail.com from: Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation | 2828 Cochran St. #194 | Simi Valley, Ca 93065

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