Sharing our Win through Vacations for Veterans

Many readers of IdeaMom know this year has been an enchanted one for our family. One year ago this week, we learned that we had just won the WindMark Beach Idea House from MyHomeIdeas.com. The home is located 90 miles away from my hometown in Northwest Florida. We are a military family who has moved around the country and the world for the past 15 years. Our plans have always been to return to the Florida beaches I call home, but didn't quite know how that would become a reality. MyHomeIdeas, their parent company, Time Inc., and St. Joe Company, the developer of WindMark Beach made that possible. In a few years, when my husband retires from the Air Force, we will have a charming beach house to call home.

Until then, we are spending vacations in the home, which we have named Summer Dream, and renting it out when we are not there. With the publicity the home received from MyHomeIdeas, we have had no problem filling the home with vacationers over the past year. Family reunions, wedding celebrations, and many other special memories have been created in the home. Sharing the home and hearing the stories of those who have visited has been a true gift to us. How wonderful to know others are enjoying our wonderful dream come true, as well!

Last year during the holiday season, we donated a week stay at Summer Dream to a deserving family at the Air Force base where we are currently stationed. This gave me the idea to research other ways we could share the blessing of our life-changing win. That is when I found Vacations for Veterans.

Vacations for Veterans is a nonprofit which organizes stays in donated vacation homes to wounded war veterans. This allows our nation's heroes an opportunity to readjust, rebuild their lives, and reconnect with families in luxurious accomodations they might not otherwise be able to afford. I listed our home with their program last Spring. We have just found out that a USMC Sgt who was awarded a Purple Heart in Iraq will be vacationing at Summer Dream, this Christmas.

This is a full-circle blessing for us. You see, we visited the home for the first time during the week of Christmas last year. I remember feeling as if I was floating on a cloud during the entire visit. What a joy! What a dream come true! And now, to share our blessing with a soldier who was injured while defending our country. Wow, what a joy! What a dream come true!

It is a wonderful feeling to see our family's blessing flow to bless another deserving family this Christmas. I know first-hand the sacrifices of our nation's military families. I am grateful for the opportunity to share our gift. My hope for the family this Christmas is for them to feel as if they are floating through a dream come true just as we were last year.

You may visit the Vacations for Veterans website to find how you may help as well. Though they are always grateful for the donation of vacation homes, they have many other needs as well, including travel expenses for veterans to the homes. We are in the process of contacting local businesses near our vacation home to have meals, gift certificates and tour packages donated to the family during their stay. A team of giving hearts can truly make a deserving person's dream come true.

Blessings to all of you,

Leisa

Ways to Give Back -- Kiva Loans for Entrepreneurs

Meet Nely Guerra Amaringo. . . . She is a 45 year old single mother of three who lives in San Martin, Peru. Nely makes a living selling fruit and homemade candy within her hometown. She cooks the sweet products at home, and then walks them around to the busier places in her village to market them. She is well-received wherever she goes.

She started her business with 500 PEN (not very much money) and her own initiative. Her profits are used to support herself and her children. To support Nely's business efforts, the nonprofit organization, Kiva.Org, is happy to help. Through Kiva, Nely is able to borrow the money she needs to buy fruit and supplies to operate her business.

Today, after reading Nely's biography, we were uplifted by her entrepreneurial spirit. We decided to donate $25 to help Nely maintain her business. In exchange, Ms. Amaringo agrees to update us on her progress, and in time, will repay her debt.

You may visit Nely's page here, or visit Kiva.Org to meet many more working poor around the world. Such a small gift offers a tremendous boost in self-confidence for these hard-working business owners. A small gift tells Nely and others like her, "I believe in you. I support you. I admire your spirit, and know in my heart you will succeed."

JULY UPDATE: Nely was successful in obtaining funds for 100% of her loan. Her business continues to be successful. Since our post last month, she has already repaid 25% of her loan! Thanks to everyone who reached out to lend her a hand. And to Kiva.Org for creatively providing resources for hardworking people like Nely to realize her dream.

Mom it Forward -- Event for DC Metro Moms

Mom It Forward, in partnership with 12 for 12K, is kicking off 6-weeks of fundraising for moms and by moms (3/31 through 5/12) and we need your help!

On Saturday, April 18, Mom It Forward and 12 for 12K events will be taking place all over the US, in Canada, and in Australia with one event taking place right here in the D.C. Metro Area—Fairfax, Virgina to be precise.

The goal is to raise funds and awareness for Yehu Microfinance, BasaBody, and Coast Coconut Farms to combat poverty by empowering poor rural entrepreneurs in Kenya to help lift themselves out of poverty through enhanced accessibility to sustainable financial services, business opportunities, and skills training. Mom It Forward's goal is to raise $50,000 and we'd like to raise $2,500 at our D.C. event to contribute toward that!

Date: Saturday, April 18
Time: 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Place: Panera Bread
Cost: Price of the Meal

What Is the Charity?
Yehu Microfinance, BasaBody, and Coast Coconut Farms work together to achieve this mission. How? First, women secure micro loans from Yehu Microfinance. Next, they purchase a franchise from Coast Coconut Farms, which gives them the materials, skills/business training, and opportunity to run a coconut oil extraction business right from their village. Then, Coast Coconut Farms makes regular village runs to purchase the coconut oil and processes it in its plant. Finally, Coast Coconut Farms exports the oil to the U.S. where volunteers there use the oil to create and sell bath, body, and cooking products—part of the Basa Body and Coast Coconut Farms product lines—returning the proceeds right back to Africa to help more and more women.
For questions, please contact momitforward@gmail.com.
To learn more or to donate to the charity, please visit momitforward.com.
To donate to the event, please contact scrappinmichele@gmail.com.

I hope some of you Maryland, Virginia & DC Moms can join us!!

Do Good With Your Vacation Home -- Paying the Blessings Forward

Winning the WindMark Idea House still feels surreal to us. Certainly, it was a tremendous blessing for us to receive such a beautiful home in the breathtaking coastal community of WindMark Beach -- but for that home to be located just 1 1/2 hours from my Northwest Florida hometown is an absolute dream come true! (Which is why we named the home --Summer Dream.)

And now, with the tremendous rental success it has experienced (each week of Spring Break has been booked SOLID and most of June & July are already rented, as well!). The joy of sharing such a blessing with so many other families is just overwhelming. To honor our blessings during the Christmas season last year, we donated a week stay in the home to our Air Force squadron booster club. During May, a military family will be vacationing there free of charge. I know the family who received the gift, and am thrilled they will be spending a much-deserved week at the beach. But . . . you know, given the level of abundance we've enjoyed this year, I truly felt we could give more.

So, we decided to offer discounted stays at Summer Dream to ALL active-duty military and veterans. This is an easy gift for us to give, of course. As an Air Force spouse and mother to three children who miss their Daddy when he's away -- I know first-hand the sacrifice of all military families.
My heart still felt that we could do more . . . so I did a little research.

I found a few organizations that utitilize vacation homes as a way to give back. Vacation Homes for Charity auctions stays in luxury homes, then appropriates the proceeds (which equates to hundreds of 1000s of dollars each year) to a variety of charities. In Cananda, cottage owners may donate a stay in their rentals through Cottage Dreams to cancer survivors and their families -- offering them a chance to recuperate and rejuvenate after treatment.Vacations For Veterans is a nonprofit organization created to provide recently wounded veterans of the United States Armed Forces with a week of free lodgings donated by a vacation homeowner. Wounded veterans face many challenges when they return home. They are reconnecting with family members and rebuilding their lives. Their honorable service and family sacrifices certainly merit relaxing time away -- but a vacation in a dreamy destination with professionally designed accomodations is a luxury few veterans would be able to afford.

Through Vacations for Veterans, our family will be able to give a worthy military family the Summer Dream vacation they deserve.

In this year when dreams keep coming true for us for us, the greatest way to express our gratitude, I believe, is to keep paying those blessings forward. I hope my children learn it is truly in giving that our hearts receive.

Today, may you also feel abundantly blessed.

Leisa