Why We Say "Enjoy Your Great Life"
It was a typical rainy day as I was driving through downtown Portland. In 2016, the Board of Directors was working on a rebranding campaign, and the foundation of the rebrand was a new name. Naming this mentoring program I’d given my heart and soul to was like naming a child—the name needed to embody the program, just as the person would embody the name. “What’s the perfect name?”
As the anniversary of my grandmother’s death had just passed, I was also thinking of her. My grandma had lived her early life in poverty. She experienced difficult times, but she was a beacon of light. She worked hard and took care of herself and others. She gave generously. She never spoke an unkind word. She lived a life that earned the respect and adoration of others.
One day when she was 91, Grandma Foo, as we affectionately called her, held my hands, looked deep into my eyes and said, “enjoy your great life.” We had experienced profound loss together. When I was a teenager, my dad, her son, was killed in an accident. From then on, we never took life for granted.
Holding my hands, Grandma Foo spoke in a knowing way. She was much farther down the road of life than I was, and her words were a message, a plea. I smiled at her guidance, not knowing just how impactful it would become. Looking back at cards and letters, I realized she had been saying those words to me for years.
I was startled when it came to me. I pulled the car over and immediately texted a board member, “Our name is Great Life Mentoring!” “That’s perfect!” she replied, offering emojis galore. And that was that.
I founded Great Life Mentoring (GLM) in 2000, as a partnership between the Clark County Department of Community Services, Columbia River Mental Health and other behavioral healthcare providers in Clark County, WA. It utilizes trained community volunteers as mentors to bolster the mental health conditions of children from low-resource families. Great things happen when you carefully pair caring adults with kids most in need of inspiration, kindness and support.
There are more than 30 million children living in low-income households in this country, making them two-to-three times more likely to develop a mental health disorder. Mental health disorders can lead to serious, life-long impairment of adaptive functioning, educational and social development and overall health, which means 40% of American children are at risk for crime and delinquency, substance abuse, educational failure and other forms of psychological dysfunction.
After more than two decades in practice, we are hearing tales from the children who received a Great Life mentor when they were young and how that mentor helped them through life’s roughest times. The children are telling their stories of hope, and the world is already a little less broken.
The GLM staff and Board are committed to scaling this proven program, allowing us to bring our standard of care, stability and emotional competence to as many children as possible. Launching GLM as a nonprofit corporation in 2021 has been our biggest milestone yet. The GLM community consists of staff, Board members, researchers, professional partners, volunteer mentors, children and families—each one doing their part.
We’re choosing to live with intention—we each have one life to live, we want to enjoy it, and we want it to be great.
You’ve heard us say, “enjoy your great life” time and time again, and this is why. Because my grandmother helped me to focus on enjoying my own great life, and the best way I can do that is to give all I have to helping others do the same.
If you’d like to make a child’s life great by being part of the Great Life Mentoring community, please reach out. We know you’ll be glad you did.
