I both love and dread May. I love it because it offers our first taste of spring as well as hints of the looming start of summer. I dread it because it is so packed with activities, as though we’ve woken up with a start, remembering all the things we want to get done before summer comes.

In the midst of all the busy-ness, we hosted our 2nd annual THRIVE fundraiser this past Saturday. Because so many of our friends, families and colleagues squeezed our activity into their own busy schedules, we had a VERY SUCCESSFUL day. Huge thanks to Aswita, Maureen, Erin (and Erin’s mother who made so many lovely baskets for our raffle), Anja, Julia, the Harvard Kennedy School students (Joe, Joe, Michael, Ben and Paul), The Independent (especially Jenna), our DJ Justin, and our EMCEE Josh. (By the way, Josh was one of the funniest auctioneers I’ve ever seen! Loved the way he worked the crowd!) And not one but two PHA Heads of School were in attendance – both outgoing Jed Lippard and relatively new Angela Allen.

Besides it being a fun way to spend an afternoon, when all is tallied up, it will likely amount to more than $5,000 raised to support our THRIVE efforts. In addition, we recently heard that we will once again be the recipients of a $5,000 MIT Community Service Fund Grant. So we will be continuing to THRIVE!

However, so long as there are children in our community needing the support of weekend food backpacks, our fundraising work will continue. Our donate link now takes you to a page where you have the option to make ongoing donations. Commit to any amount that you are comfortable with, and make it weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually. Consider this: $5 weekly would sponsor one child for the entire year.