The terror of this horrible disease and the fear and panic of the last few months have warranted screams of “Mayday” from every corner of our world.
But “May Day” also symbolizes rebirth. It was a time young children gathered spring flowers. When birds tended their nests of new hatchlings. And the constraints of “winter cabin fever” were released and we could once again feel the sunlight on our faces.
It still is. And this year it is a time when our strong and unceasing prayers, our sacrifices, and our resolve will begin to beat back COVID-19.
Beginning next Friday, May 1—May Day—Shonda Schaefer, GRACE Chief Executive Officer, will share stories of the many heroic acts we have witnessed in recent days. Joining her will be community leaders who have also seen our communities pull closer together even as we have been kept apart by social distancing mandates.
The multi-part series will conclude on Tuesday, May 5, as part of the region-wide North Texas Giving Tuesday NOW! campaign. The Communities Foundation of Texas has partnered its North Texas Giving Day campaign with the global #GivingTuesdayNow event. GRACE is one of multiple charitable agencies participating.
On Tuesday, May 5 from 6 a.m. to midnight, donors will be asked to visit the North Texas Giving Tuesday NOW! website to make a gift for their favorite charity. Early Giving is open now through May 4.
If you’ve already given a gift to GRACE, please accept our most humble and grateful thanks. Your gift has helped thousands of local families who were blindsided by this crisis.
You have supported families who had been able to make ends meet with a modest income flowing into their household but were suddenly out of a job, rationing food, deferring utility payments, and relying on their landlords to accept eviction stays.
You have made life better for single mothers whose meager savings were exhausted trying to keep her children safe, all the while worried she may bring home the disease from one of the few essential businesses—hospitals, grocers, convenience stores—where cleaning and service staff kept their jobs.
You have eased the fears of our senior clients—those most vulnerable to coronavirus—who lost many of their personal and financial safety nets from social distancing and stay-at-home orders, placing them in serious danger of isolation and neglect.
If you have yet to make a gift to GRACE, please consider helping us mount this rebirth of our community. Your gift will help us bridge to the other side where “May Day” is not a cry for help, but a reason to celebrate our season of renewal.
