It’s hard to believe that as I write this letter, the year is almost over. It’s even harder to believe that this year marked our 100th anniversary as an agency. The Goldie Floberg has changed a lot over those 100 years. We’ve gone from serving mothers and their children following soldiers from Camp Grant during World War I, to providing a loving and safe home for children as they sought adoption or foster care, to the work we do today providing community living and day services to children, teens, and adults with intellectual developmental disabilities. One thing has not changed though, and that is our belief that one leads through service to others.

This year many servant leaders have stepped up to make our mission of empowerment and enrichment a reality for the lives of the people we serve. We have Liz who worked tirelessly to help people served attend camps where they zip lined, rode horses, climbed rock walls, practiced archery, and canoed for the first time in their lives. We have Amanda who took one of the boys she serves to Six Flags to realize one of his personal goals. We have Linda who has been helping

Jamaal’s first trip to Six Flags

one of the men she serves give back to the community by assisting him in volunteering for another not-for-profit. We have Robbie who drove a child we serve home to his family on Thanksgiving day—the first Thanksgiving he’s been able to spend at his family home in a decade.

In this year-end issue of Dignity, you will read about Aktion Club and its members’ commitment to our community, about the commendations received and given by staff for making an impact on the work we do every day, and about our annual celebration of donors, like you, who make this all possible. The one quality that seems to unite these stories, our organization, and our 100-year legacy is “heart.” I see it in the volunteers who saw an unfulfilled need for mothers and children 100 years ago, to the legendary heart of our namesake, Goldie Floberg, who advocated for children in danger of falling through the cracks of circumstance. And today, the heart of our mission to empower and enrich the lives of all people served is evident in Liz, Linda, Robbie, Anne Marie and her Aktion Club friends, all working to make a difference in this community. After 100 years, the heart of this organization is beating just as strong. Imagine how many more lives it will touch over the next 100.