I always wanted to start a non-profit and give back to the community that I live in.  This want was never out of selfish reasons but a genuine yearning of a life style that benefitted me and the world that I live in.  My mother who passed in March, 2017 instilled in me from a very young age to understand the plight of others and that the biggest secret to happiness was giving your time and effort, especially to people who are in need.

Yesterday, I finished off my last day of work as a teacher in Odessa TX. The day was filled with mixed emotions.  I was misty eyed for most of the day as I hugged several of my coworkers goodbye. An elementary school is a great place to learn the craft of giving, teachers are always giving of themselves far beyond what their contract calls them to do.  The last nine years has been a time of great awakening for me and understanding what I feel my purpose is and what kind of dent that I want to leave in the cosmos. My purpose is being the best dad I can dad to my son and starting CHEERS2CHARITYLUBBOCK.

Which brings me to what I am doing today, I have spent most of the morning contacting nonprofits and charity groups in Lubbock via phone call setting up interviews and meetings, signing up for volunteering and getting the word out about CHEERS2CHARITYLUBBOCK.

C2CL was conceived in my head when I was socializing on Twitter and Facebook and other social sites like Vimeo, Medium, Tumbir, YouTube, Google+  with my friends and professional contacts in the Dallas area where I spent the majority of my adulthood living and working as a caterer running my own business.

Well, a few months ago, my friend Jason and his ex-Stephanie had commented on a post that I posted about my son. They are two people that I really look up to and have known for a couple of decades.  Back in the day in Dallas they ran a group, a non-profit called cheers4charity. People would meet once to twice a month at someone’s house, sports bar, café, coffee shop, restaurant or park.  Very cool people from all walks of life would meet to socialize and to give back. 

For example, we meet once at a lady’s home and all congregated in her living room and backyard having drinks and catching up for the first 30 minutes to 45 minutes.  This gave time to for people to feel wanted by socializing and allowed time for people that might be running late to arrive.  We would come together and usually Stephanie and her friend would facilitate the meeting.  This meeting I am recollecting was to a children’s charity in Dallas and everyone attending the meeting was given notice via news-letter, phone call, and email to bring either $10.00 or a toy worth $10 to the event. 

Stephanie by the end of the night would gather all the toys and donations and later would make that delivery to charity we spotlighted on our behalf.  She was always really good about pictures and letting everyone know how appreciated the charity felt. Each meeting was slightly different and sometimes they were informational meetings, or meeting to sign up volunteers for like the food bank or what have you.

I asked Jason and Stephanie since Cheers4Charity is no longer around if I could start my own nonprofit in Lubbock known as Cheers2CharityLubbock.  They were happy to give me their blessings.

I want C2CL to run like they ran their organization.  We have the benefit of social networking these days and having a community like Lubbock where it will be easy to find lots of caring people willing to help and socialize. Having fun and giving! What else can you ask for?