Celebrating the Heart of Our Community
April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and as it comes to a close, we want to take a moment to reflect and say a heartfelt thank you to the incredible volunteers who make our work possible.
Throughout the month, we had the joy of hosting some of our volunteers for a Tea Party to express our gratitude for generously giving their time, talents, and hearts to our community.
A Time of Gratitude
Our Volunteer Appreciation Tea Parties were filled with warmth and connection. Volunteers gathered over cups of tea and towers of treats to pause from the busyness of everyday life and simply enjoy being together.
One of the most meaningful parts of our time together was a reflection shared by Theresa, Community Engagement Coordinator at Thistle Farms:
"To begin, I invite us into this sacred moment that Thistle Farms has been doing for 30 years.
We light a candle.
We light this candle for the next women trying to find her way home and we keep this candle lit in hopes they see the light because we are the light.
At Thistle Farms, we say and truly believe that love is the most powerful force for change in the world. Today, looking around this room, I see that love embodied in each one of us.
Volunteers are not simply people who help us do the work, you are part of the community of love that makes the work possible.
Our mission has always been rooted in one holy truth, women can heal. Love can restore. Community can raise what the world has cast aside.
Through sanctuary, through meaningful work, through advocacy, and through radical hospitality, we practice resurrection every day.
Recently completing the 2 year residential program and being honored to accept a sacred seat on the Community Engagement Team, has taught me that even the lost, broken, and hurting can be resurrected.
Each of you is part of my resurrection story.
Every seed that you planted
Every candle you packed with intention
Every meal you served with a kind smile
Every hour you offered with true love
And every act of kindness each of you has given…
Has been part of my healing journey and will continue to be part of it.
Thistle Farms showed me that true healing happens in community and that None has to heal alone. And when we rise, we rise together.
There is an old blessing my grandmother live by:
May I be brave enough to risk love, strong enough to hope, and resilient enough to heal.
That is what you help make possible for me.
My life has been transformed by this community, I know this is more than service. This is sacred work.
You are helping create sanctuary.
You are helping tend the fire of hope.
You are helping proclaim with your lives that no one is disposable.
Your presence has taught me and every woman that has walked through our doors and every woman coming behind us
That we are welcome here.
That we are worthy.
And that every life matters.
That is the true work of healing
So as this candle burns, may it remind us that love is not abstract.
Love looks like showing up.
Love looks like service.
Love looks like community.
Love looks like each and every one of you.
Thank you for helping carry this mission.
Thank you for being a big part of this healing community."
Ready to Get Involved?
As we wrap up Volunteer Appreciation Month, we want to extend an open invitation to anyone looking to join our volunteer family. If you’ve been thinking about getting involved, there’s a place for you here.
To every volunteer who joined us for tea, who shows up week after week, and who supports our mission in countless ways, thank you. We are endlessly grateful for you, today and always.
