Fair Haven Community Health Center celebrated it's 35th anniversary at a Gala event on Friday night. Everyone looked great and there were some amazing people in the room. I'm lucky to work with many of them. My boss told a story about the clinic's opening that has stuck with Katy and me. A feasibility study was done which basically said, "This endeavor (opening up a health center to care for this New Haven community) will not be successful." Due to the lack of available resources and other obstacles, a recommendation was made that the funding this "project" would be futile. But the committee decided (for the sake of the volunteers) to "fund it anyway."
35 years, 130 FTE's, and a 10 million dollar annual budget later, we're still fighting the good fight.
Several times since Friday night, Katy has squeezed my hand with a misty tear in her eye(s) and whispered, "fund it anyway." I can't say I'm sure what she means - I think it extends beyond Fair Haven and has rooted as some symbolic slogan in her psyche. Perhaps she has a grand scheme that I am unaware, or wants to increase our charitable giving. But I read it to mean that optimism and kindness (the kind she exhibits daily) is it's own reward... And folks that lean toward cynicism (like me) ought to learn a thing or two.
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