An Eight-Minute Mile

In an attempt to be efficient, I’ve already made my New Year’s Resolution. I resolve to train to be able to run a mile in 8 minutes. Some of you may think that this is pretty slow. If you think that, you are much younger than I am. According to the stats of the only timed race I ran last year (some of you may remember that Lisa beat me by two seconds in this race), if I can make an eight minute mile I have a good shot at placing in my age division.

I’m currently running a mile in 8 minutes, 49 seconds. So how do I plan to pare those seconds down? Seven seconds at a time. If I run three weeks at each new (faster) speed, I should be running 8 minute miles starting the second week of June.

So I guess this is more a goal than a resolution. I’ve set a goal and established milestones to help me achieve it. It’s classic goal setting – the type that we teach the Horizonte Young Parents and the girls at JO&A. It’s classic because it works.

At the beginning of the year our club set three goals. How are we doing?
- Membership Goal: 65 members. When we set this goal we had 42 members. We’re now at 52!
- Fundraising Goal: $20,000. So far, with two fund raisers done and two to go, we’ve raised $4,800.
- Program Goal: Domestic Violence and Refugees. We had a great presentation in November on empowering women refugees. We donated many of the leftover toys and clothing from Breakfast with Santa to the refugees, and we assisted 6 refugee children with new clothing to attend their mother’s funeral. We have “Crop ‘Til It Stops” coming up in January, with proceeds designated for a domestic violence project to be determined by the Service Committee.

We have accomplished much the first half of the year. Yes, we have more work to do, but the finish line is in sight, and we will cross together.

Practicing Christmas

Growing up, my brothers and I would practice Christmas morning. Not sure what motivated us to do this – I can’t imagine any child forgetting how to do it – but just to be sure, we would practice. The rules were:
1. First one up wakes everybody up.
2. Get Mom and Dad up.
3. Rip ‘em apart.
We’d run through the drill several times in the days leading up to Christmas morning. And sure enough, when the big day came, we were perfect.

It’s true – we do get better at the things we practice. So I sometimes wonder why we don’t practice Christmas all year. At Christmas, we take treats to our neighbors and send cards to faraway friends. At Christmas, we give to the hungry and to the homeless. At Christmas, we make sure that all children have warm clothing to wear and toys to play with. At Christmas we make it a point to spend time with our families. And at Christmas we tend to focus more on our blessings and less on our troubles.

I am honored to be of service to SI of Salt Lake – whose members truly practice Christmas year round. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Miracle of Breakfast with Santa

Last year, as we were unpacking Mother’s gifts for the 2009 Breakfast with Santa, Karen’s daughter Allison commented, “We get a loaves and fishes miracle every year.” This year we quite literally got loaves – through a generous donation from a foundation who wished to remain anonymous. This foundation donated $1000 toward the breakfast, significantly easing the burden on Café Madrid.

Then there were toys and mothers gifts. We received hundreds of jewelry items, along with cosmetics, clothing, even crock pots. The toys that were piled on tables in Santa’s Secret Workshop came from individuals and businesses. We had games, stuffed animals, trucks – even a bike – all donated. And when I checked the sign-in list last, we had 156 volunteers – not counting the Soroptimists.

We even managed to pull together Christmas items for a needy family who didn’t qualify for Breakfast with Santa but still needed help. The support of our members and our community for the Single Moms’ Breakfast with Santa is truly amazing.

And those of us who looked at the smiles on the faces of the children as they visited with Santa and as they wrapped gifts for their moms, or saw the relief and gratitude on the faces of the mothers as they received warm clothing for their children – can say for certain that they witnessed the miracle of Breakfast with Santa.

Christmas season has now arrived.