SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 FREE2FLY LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT
After many years of contemplating the idea in my head, and meditating on what I felt God had placed in my heart to do. Last year, I made the decision to put action behind something I had hoped for and dreamed would happen. I submitted the paperwork to begin the nonprofit organization, Free2Fly, Inc. In September of 2015 when I walked into the post office and received the letter stating the official 501©(3) status, I knew it would be on! The work that I hold near and dear to my heart was actualized. Free2Fly, Inc. was born! The organization that enriches the lives of young women to achieve purpose driven goals, celebrating every milestone of success as they soar to new heights. We believe that exposure to different places and people who live out their dreams will ignite the spark within young women to create their best life. This will then light a fire to a passion within that leads to blazing a trail of purposeful living.
Over the course of this year, we have definitely grown. Each day we are learning the ropes of the nonprofit world. To introduce ourselves with working with flygirls and flyguys, I decided to host a Halloween costume party. It was a great turn out, ages ranging from 10 – 12yrs old. I asked them questions to find out their interest and issues they are currently facing in school. They were more than happy to share. The results of this brainstorming session solidified our focus of empowering young women in middle school and high school. This is an area of familiarity. I want our program participants to recognize their beauty, but most importantly, the inner beauty as they grow into the women they will become.
The FlyGirl Project was formed and I decided to hold another event in November, highlighting the “Engagement” Initiative from the 5 ‘E’ structure. We believe in the importance of giving back. As part of this initiative, our goal to instill a lifelong love of service. We decided to link up with another organization that provided clothing for the less fortunate and the girls were happy to help.
December is the month for planning and during that time we began laying the framework for an annual brunch. The details flowed, so we decided to let it run its course. In February, we had Free2Fly’s First Annual Empowerment Brunch! It was a great way to introduce the organization to the community and share our mission and goals.
We’ve kept the momentum and hosted a mother/daughter vision board session to get an idea of the goals our flygirls had in mind. Next, we volunteered with Sow Much Good to expose them to self-sustainable living and healthy ways of eating in June.
As we moved forward to July, we partner with the Center for Counseling and Rehabilitation Services to have a celebration for young girls in the community and their accomplishments. We had a speaker along with games and sharing the beautiful ways that each young lady was unique.
After partnering with the counseling center, we felt we may have been pulled into the lane Free2Fly, Inc. could operate. From this partnership, birthed our new and exciting Soar! 8 week program. Designed to provide tools to assist our flygirls in making good decisions as they navigate their teenage years and beyond. We know that teenagers deal with so much, from peer pressures to the expectations of upholding societal standards of beauty. This program will provide an outlet for them to freely express themselves, while recognizing their beauty within and develop skills that they can use for a lifetime.
This has been a challenging experience, but so fulfilling. We are looking forward to the year ahead. I have been managing all the duties primarily, along with two family members that serve as part time volunteers. In order for us to move forward with the plans for this upcoming year, we need your help! We are in need of volunteers that have a passion to empower young ladies and a story to share that could have a positive impact. If that is you, please visit our website at www.free2fly.com! You can also help by donating towards the cause. Your donations will be put towards event planning as well as offer scholarship opportunities for those that are not able to pay fees associated with our programs. Please know that we take great pleasure in serving you and we look forward to having another awesome year with your help and participation!
God Bless,
Camik McNeill
Executive Director
Free2Fly, Inc