Louis Vuitton Giveaways Contest WINNERS!

This has been a year of highs and lows for me. Through it all, I remained humble and continued to serve others. In my professional life, I worked to name the first ever Pediatric Trauma Center in our state. Upon assuming my position, pediatrics in our state has never been a priority. Before being promoted to the position, I started the first ever Pediatric Trauma and Injury Prevention Symposium in our state. I also volunteer as a Guardian ad Litem in my home county. I take this responsibility very serious. I make frequent visits to the foster home and schools making sure the children are safe while continuing to investigate the case gather as many facts as possible. During the summer, I coordinated across state lines with a military base in Georgia to assist in the reunification of a family while providing ongoing services for adjustment progress. I continued to make history making progress in my professional career while giving as much time to my volunteer work as possible. I am the mother of two boys and I am a strong volunteer at their schools as well. They both play sports so I am there to support them during games and practices. My mother is deceased and I have two sisters that I often provide motherly assistance to them. They are adults, but I often feel that they need the support of a mother figure so I am here. In October of this year, I got a new boss. She immediately began bullying and harassing a number of employees including me. After dealing with blood pressure and anxiety issues, after over thirteen years with this agency, I resigned on November 14. I have been applying for jobs but in the meantime, I volunteered to accept additional foster cases to remain busy. I am a strong advocat The county I am from has been consistently named the least healthy county in our state, been in the rankings of the top ten counties with the highest number of traumas, and remained in the top five of highest poverty counties in our state. The county does not have a Wal-Mart or Salvation Army therefore depends on volunteers to help donate to less fortunate families for Christmas. Each year, the local fire department and EMS agency has been donating bikes for the Christmas giveaway. Since the county has so many negative statistics, I have worked to provide helmets for the bikes donated for injury prevention efforts. This year, since I was no longer employed by the agency that helped with the helmets, I was feeling really sad about not being able to help assist with helmets or the assistance giveaway. The pastor that heads the nonprofit that organizes the giveaway approached me and told me that he looked forward to seeing me in December 22, 2012 to help out. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I made phone calls hoping to get some donations. On December 21, 2012 I got a response from a nearby hospital that agreed to donate 220 helmets to match the 220 bikes that were donated. They also donated water bottle and other minor gifts that were stored in their warehouse. This was the highlight of my year. For this annual giveaway, people wait in the cold for hours until we begin at 8 am. I was just pleased to be able to able. I normally have my oldest son help out as well, but he was very sick this year. Finally, on Christmas Eve, I got a call from the mother of one of my friends who explained that her daughter had not gotten her kids anything for Christmas. She then told me they were calling churches because the kids didn't have coats either. Ironically, I had two coats that I was planning to donate that belonged to my boys. I told her that I would bring the coats to her. One of the children is a girl, but I explained it was the best I could do. I am still unemployed but have no regrets. I have interviewed a few places and hope for a favorable response. I was raised to give back and help others and I will continue to do so always. Before passing away my mother was the director of the local council on aging. She had my sisters and I volunteering to feed the senior citizens and collecting goods for the local pantries. This is a great contest because it shows how many people give back and help others daily. We are not millionaires, but we give back on our levels. My dream is to open my own non-profit. It is just hard to decide what it will be because I have volunteered so much and there are so many strong needs out here.