At first glance, many assume that Beverly's Angels was born to honor my mother. For decades, I lived with the thought that everyone else had a perfect, loving, supportive mother. Beverly had five marriages, undiagnosed mental health issues, struggled with alcohol abuse and apologized or showed love by taking me shopping.

Beverly was challenging, to say the least, throughout my life. Beverly's Angels was created to heal callused wounds and to show our community how to simply be kind. I wanted to embrace the kind and creative side that I knew existed inside of my Mom and let go of the disappointment, anger and resentment that I still carried with me. With no cause to champion, I started random acts of kindness throughout the community with a small army of volunteers. I was shocked to find so many similar stories of other women and realized we are all in need of healing from something.

In a flash of awareness, everything changed for me and my mission. I gave an eight year old boy brand new khaki pants for school. They had a tag and were folded in a cellophane bag. The little boy seemed stunned as he softly said, "I don't ever remember something being mine first." That day changed my perspective on everything in life. Yours First as our standard was created, and I decided to dedicate my life to educating others; your discarded items are not good enough for you, so why would they be good enough for the people we serve. The rest is history.

Christmas Eve 2019 Beverly's Angels officially became a 501(c)3. I started with zero budget and a handful of volunteers. I have transformed my organization to a paid staff of five, a selected group of critical volunteers, and I have yet to take compensation. What truly makes this journey the most rewarding is twofold: I can see the difference we are making in changing the trajectory of someone’s life and watching my new staff grow daily as they embrace our powerful mission. We are a family at Beverly’s Angels, and we agree to always give whole heartedly in everything that we do.

I have promised myself to try and be better everyday, to dive into my pain to heal and to surround myself with authentic, genuine people that continue to inspire me. I encourage women to shine their light bright and never flicker the flame of another. I encourage you to lead with the beauty of light and love. An abundance of healing has transpired over the last few years. Today, I realize that my resilience, negotiation skills, compassion, work ethic and philosophy is because Beverly was the perfect Mom for me; this is what Beverly's Angels honors.