Corrals

Spring Corral 2021

SPRING CORRAL 2021 “You Just Don’t Get It!” I’ll Take My Charity Without Much Reality, Thank You Very Much I spend most of my life navigating between two very different worlds. I have the public relations and public policy and business management and leadership world, and I have the world that the kids live in […]

SPRING CORRAL 2021

“You Just Don’t Get It!”

I’ll Take My Charity Without Much Reality, Thank You Very Much

I spend most of my life navigating between two very different worlds. I have the public relations and public policy and business management and leadership world, and I have the world that the kids live in at The Ranches. Some days I see the similarities and some days, the two worlds could not possibly feel farther apart.

Connections, Kids, and Our Donors

On one hand, I spend a lot of my time writing and engaging the public in – what I hope ends up being – meaningful ways. Often, I am working to tell the kids’ stories to people in hopes of connecting the kids’ tragedies to our donors’ sense of empathy. That is often followed by presenting the needs of our organization in hopes of eliciting the, “hey, I can help with that” response that I’ll probably never hear in person but will hopefully see in the mail.

On the other hand, I spend a lot of time with the kids that we serve. The fears and the tears and the sense of loss that comes with their history can weigh heavy at times. As I said and will further explain, the two worlds could not feel farther apart. For the kids, they often feel like we don’t “get it” and that no one really “gets them.” We work diligently to change that, but won’t be successful in changing anything if we are dedicated to repeating all that others have already tried.

Common Misconceptions

One of the biggest disconnections between these two worlds comes from the fact that the kids often have a limited view of you, our donors. They tend to believe that y’all are all wealthy, overwhelmingly happy and that your life has been filled with everything good and never any of the tragedy that they have endured. They tend to think that you all say a quiet prayer and that your prayer is answered in almost instantaneous fashion. I’ve tried to explain that everyone has tragedy and everyone lives with unanswered prayers, but they are pretty stubborn in their beliefs and their lack of first-hand knowledge makes challenging their perceptions difficult. Additionally and unfortunately, the kids also tend to believe that their prayers just aren’t as important as yours. Despite our best efforts, they believe what they believe and tend to feel that God may be out there, but that He doesn’t really like them or their families all that much. When you consider that their view of God is often shaped by their father – or lack thereof – it begins to make a whole lot more sense.

Read the full Spring Corral 2021 – Click Here…

Sincerely,
Heath Kull – President
HeathK@theranches.org