A Convergence of Events
A series of seemingly unrelated events hit me over the weekend and I’d like to share them with you.
The first was reading a series of essays in the Wall Street Journal addressed to the college graduates of 2020. This class is missing out on the culmination of a lifetime of learning. They can’t celebrate graduation with their friends, and they face an uncertain personal and economic future. With great uncertainty though comes great opportunity, and it is this class of students and their generation that has the most time to effect change. Do they put their time, effort and careers into rebuilding the past, or to creating a better future? I think we can all agree that a cleaner environment, basic needs like food and shelter for all, and community over division are goals to strive for. How we get there is the tricky part and there are no simple answers. Ignoring the problems won’t make them go away, and my hope is that the graduating class of 2020 will use their youth, knowledge, and energy to bring about the changes our country needs.
The second event is I’ve been struck by how full my mailbox and inbox are with requests for help from charitable organizations. In particular I received urgent pleas from two organizations that we support, Love A Child and Feed My Starving Children. Love A Child is a non-profit on the ground in Haiti that provides food, shelter, medicine, and hope to the people of Haiti. I had the privilege of visiting them in 2011 right after the earthquake that devastated the country. The situation today is probably worse than it was back in 2011. Feed My Starving Children is based here in Minneapolis and provides food to organizations like Love A Child, and to other organizations in 70 countries around the world. The life-saving food they provide is hand packed by volunteers. Last year over 1 million volunteers packed 365 million meals for starving children around the world. Packing sessions can’t be conducted right now due to COVID-19, and FMSC is re-tooling to continue to deliver the meals to their partners that depend on it. At online church this morning I received another reminder, that the food shelves in Minnesota are bare and there are people in our own backyard going hungry.
The third “unrelated” event was a recognition that we had set a goal at our company this year to highlight and donate each quarter to an organization in our community that we like to support. It seems that goal has been pushed aside, as the urgency of dealing with the economic downturn and disruption to our lives has taken a higher priority. In reality though, we are some of the lucky ones. Our business can still operate, and we have plenty of food in our refrigerator.
At Modus Advisors we strive to be part of the solution. We want to help our clients reach their most important financial goals and use their resources for the things in life that matter most. As a member of our local and global community, we want to use our resources to help those in need that aren’t as fortunate as we are. With that in mind, we’re pleased to donate this month to three organizations that provide food to the most needy; Love A Child, Feed My Starving Children, and ICA Foodshelf.
We believe the current pandemic is a time not to focus inward, but instead outward. It is a time to advocate for the changes that will build a better community, a better country, and a better world. If we all do this, we’ll re-emerge from this crisis stronger than ever and build a better future for us all.
