When an infant is born, there is an incredible amount of hope attached to their arrival and all that they represent. When a new year dawns, it too comes with so many hopes and dreams for the coming twelve months. 2020 has thrown our globe for a loop and we are grappling with uncertainty and the unknown that surely wasn’t in anyone’s plan on New Year’s Eve. What for many of us started out as a year filled with hope, dreams, and goals, we are now challenged to swerve and reassess what those things now mean.
At Giraffe Laugh our primary focus is on ensuring school readiness, empowering families and building strong futures. To build strong futures, in the past ten days (has it really only been two weeks?) we have been focusing on providing essential services to our underserved families through food and supply distribution. In order to ensure school readiness, in the coming week, we are adding web-based social learning opportunities for our children by our very own educators, our teachers. To empower and support parents we are sharing resources about how to promote educational activities, but also how to cope and teach their children about a pandemic.
Our buildings are closed to protect our families and staff, but we are working remotely to fulfill our mission in many ways. We strongly believe that social distancing is what is needed to stop this pandemic and need to do our part to ensure that happens. We are reaching out to see where our families and staff are and supporting them as needs increase. We are doing all we can to continue to support families and staff while we navigate through this unprecedented event.
We know you are there. So many have reached out in support and in solidarity. We simply can’t do this without you and we don’t want to. Because our centers are temporarily closed, we do not have a revenue source from tuition. Parents are rightly using their resources to hire one of our teachers or a neighbor to care for their children. After 30 years, we never thought we’d see our doors shut, even temporarily.
We are at the beginning of this new chapter of 2020, looking out at the horizon with all of the hope of a new baby or a new year. As it unfolds, we hope you’ll continue to come alongside us in our efforts to care for those we hold dear. Our overarching goal is to be here for our children, parents, and staff when our world goes back to “normal” whatever that looks like. Thank you for supporting our youngest learners and those that are raising them.
For more information on how to support, please donate here or contact Cassandra Wagner at Cassandra@giraffelaugh.org 208-954-5455.