2024 New Year Reflection

It’s a New Year and here we are. 2023 made us proud. Not just because we formed Stellify, but because of you. My highlight from 2023 was the community we saw that was created. 

You came, you participated, you tried hard, you failed, and you got up again and you supported us. You spread the word about us, you told us nice things and you donated.  So many of you participated in making this happen. I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU.

2023 ended with our Christmas Party. I asked Sander who was coming, and he answered, “My friends and their families”. My friends and their families have never meant so much.  

For 21 years he has followed his family in whatever we were doing. Never had he invited his friends who had parents we had never met. The party was a huge success and there are many more to come.

Last year was filled with movie trips, bowling days, hiking, and working out hard in the gym. There were days when we took on many smaller jobs in our job training program and we learned a lot. We learned to brush our teeth well and we learned to engage with other people. Our programs are growing and evolving as we continue to work on independent living skills and communication whether it is verbal or spelling. We had some amazing questions asked from our members and my highlight was probably “How do you regulate?” Being able to ask your peers and not just a professional is key to our success.

A strong bond is formed between our members, and they will have those bonds hopefully throughout their lives. Friends matter. Friends support friends. And yay — did we make many friends last year!

We want to engage a larger group. At Stellify, we want everyone to feel included, so we keep on writing, and talking, and posting and listening to everyone in our Stellify Community and beyond.

Stellify’s board is formed. 9 beautiful friends and supporters have decided that they want to help us and be part of this amazing group. We will have fundraisers and events and organize a lot of fun. We have expanded our job training program to visit and help other nonprofit organizations and learn new skills doing so.

Our promise for 2024 is that we will work hard to make this group grow and be available to anyone who wants to join us. 

And I still whisper all the time “My friends and their families” with a smile on my face.

Anne