October 6, 2014
World Changer: Go Shout Love
On a regular basis, we receive inquiries from people about donating to The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. As a privately funded non-profit, we’re unable to accept donations but want to point people towards some amazing companies, organizations, and people who are doing awesome things in the name of Kindness. This is one entry in an ongoing series of posts about some amazing World Changers telling you about their missions in their own words:
Meet Go Shout Love:
1) Tell us about you/your company
Go Shout Love is an organization that is all about shouting love, spreading awareness and raising funds for children born with rare diseases. We feature a new family and special kiddo each month and work hard to help this family in any way possible. We design unique shirts for kids and adults in honor of our current feature and we sell them throughout their featured month. 60% of the proceeds go to the families. We raise funds all month through unique and fun ways and we work to get people all across social media involved so they can pour love out for the families and really help to lift their spirits. One of our feature families said,
'Beyond the money, the love support & community we felt was invaluable. It's hard to express the loneliness that comes with a journey like one we're walking with Paisley. I can be in a room full of moms & babes and still feel so completely alone because they are on such a different journey. So, this was so beautiful to us. We felt love support & one night as we watched videos laughing in bed, we just looked at each other and said 'can you believe all these people are dancing for our daughter?!' ... Pretty overwhelming.'
2) Tell us your “Why?” What is your company’s mission/message?
We started this organization after seeing a big need. We fell in love with a family who has a baby with a rare and terminal illness, SMA type 1. This family was not only battling the shock of their baby being diagnosed with a disease that would take her life but was also battling sky-high medical bills. We set up an Instagram auction for her and were able to raise a good amount of money to help offset some of those medical bills, but beyond the funds, the support that poured in all over social media for this family was overwhelming and beautiful. People began to shout love for them and encourage them from all over the world and the connections this family was able to make with other families and other individuals over social media was an amazing thing to see. We hear over and over again how lonely and isolating these mothers feel while battling this situation they are in and we do not want them to feel so alone. We want to open doors and connections for them and we want them to feel the love being shouted for them all across the world. We feel that love is not meant to be silent, that it is meant to be LOUD and heard all over the world. We believe that everyone should be rising up and raising their voices for these children and families. The power of spreading a story and lending a hand can be truly amazing. We hope you will join us in fighting for these sweet babies!
3) What inspires you in your work?
These incredibly strong and courageous families. Their spirit is so infectious and we just can’t help but want to give them the world. Seeing what they sacrifice and what they do each day over and over again for their children and for their love of their families is one of the most inspiring things we have witnessed and then to hear them say to us that they felt loved and less lonely just gives us that drive and motivation to work as hard as we can for them!
4) Tell us about 1 act of kindness that YOU have experienced that stands out in your mind.
An act of kindness that we have experienced that stands out in our mind is when someone gave us a very generous donation to go towards one of our featured families. It was someone who did not know the family and was not connected to the cause, but they heard what Go Shout Love was doing and stopped everything and wrote a check for this family and it made a huge difference and spoke volumes of kindness to us and to the family that we were featuring.
5) Finish the sentence: “Kindness is…”
Kindness is the key to shouting love for others. It’s listening to your heartstrings being pulled towards helping these families that are in such desperate need of having their spirits lifted. It’s a simple comment on the family’s Facebook post, letting them know that you are thinking of them.
