A Note from Allison: October 2023

Happy Halloween! 

“To everything turn, turn, turn… 

There is a season, turn, turn, turn… 

And a time to every purpose under Heaven.” 

I was thinking of this song by The Byrds, which is based on Ecclesiastes 3:1, as I drove to work yesterday morning.  After the especially beautiful warm fall, we had our first cold spell.  It made me think about October and everything this month had to offer.   

Early this month, New Hope was thrilled to receive a Lilly Endowment grant for capacity building!  Thanks to the Lilly Endowment, the next two years will bring lots of excitement and growth to New Hope!  We will start new programs; find new associates; show our mission to more people; develop our culture through DEIA and think about New Hope’s future!  We cannot thank the Lilly Endowment enough! 

If that was not enough, we also received another $20,000 from the United Way of Central Indiana to help us learn more about the literal workings of our building, as well as how to plan for our post-COVID space needs.  To kick this project off, the architects who will be doing space planning attended our Client Communication with over 30-day services and AIM clients in attendance.  They had great ideas, including a gym-like space and more outdoor spaces where people can gather.  

Early October also surprised me with the James M. Hammond, III, Executive Leadership Award by New Hope’s trade association, INARF.  What an honor!  Also awarded that day was Lynette Luphahla, who received the Costa N. Miller Scholarship Award, which granted her money to continue her education at Ivy Tech!  Congratulations Lynette! 

Through all this good, we also had sadness as we held a beautiful Celebration of Life for the individuals we served who passed away this year.  We celebrated the lives of Robert “Bob” Jackson, Jana Kay Alenduff, Lynne Martin, Kyle Eakin, William Webster, Terri Hopson, John Fraizer, Elizabeth Borders, Glenn Ebert and Patrick Michael Hill. 

And one turn later, the month ended on a happy note as we had one of the best Fall Festivals ever (one person’s opinion)!  New Hope hosted nearly 300 people in our building for bingo, dancing, a costume contests, pie-in-the-face fundraiser for Aktion Club, pizza and more!  Thanks to Maddie Bulkley and Jenny Pfeil for putting together the event and all their volunteers for making it so fun! 

As we turn to November, we have much to be thankful for here at New Hope!  Thank you to everyone who supports us in all the many ways!   

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall! 

Allison