Happy Father’s Day!

Photo of my father, wandering the village of his grandfather

Thinking About Fathers by Katheryn Laible

Happy Father’s Day!

Here is a photo of my own father, wandering through the village of his grandfather, telling stories about him, the mother he raised, his own father, and his father…

I am grateful for him, for them, for my sweet husband, and for all who give it their best to be a good man and serve as a father. It means more than I can say….Thank you!

Apparently Father’s Day didn’t come about until quite a few decades after Mother’s Day. In fact, while in the US it was apparently initiated by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd in 1909, whose dad raised her and her five siblings alone, it didn’t become an official national thing until 1972!

You can read about that and other fascinating bits in this Britannica entry, as well as in this History.com article.

I love this collection of “The Best Quotes on Fatherhood” from The Art of Manliness…

Did you know there’s a National Fatherhood Initiative dedicated to helping foster fatherhood?

I am also really, really grateful for all who step up to serve in a fathering role, This expecially includes all those folks who for one reason or another end up wearing both mother and father hats, and those who are determined to be the father they wish they had.

One sweet and broadly helpful example is this guy, Rob Kenney who hosts “Dad, how do I?” on YouTube. Kenny’s dedicated to doing his “best to provide useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do.” He started out just trying to do it for his own kids, and now we all benefit.

Grateful!

Girls Inc. of Long Island: Strong. Smart. Bold.

Kaylin St. Victor, "Girl of the Year" with Girls Inc Executive Director Renee Flagler

It was a privilege to witness Girl’s Inc of Long Island produce their Annual Gala. As an organizational wonk and a human being, I instantly fell in love with these strong, smart, empowering women, the folks they draw into their fold, and their skilled passion for the girls it is their job to nurture.

Continue reading

Happy New Year! Thank You, Friends for these End of Year Resources!

Photo of sparkler with heart shaped core by Katheryn Laible

Photo “New Year’s Love” by Katheryn Laible

Happy New Year! We thought you might appreciate the following:
 
Let’s start with this fascinating piece on the history of New Year’s and its traditions from History.com
 
Then, let’s reflect on our own recent history. Here’s a blog post on a 7-Step Year in Review from Strength Leader Deb Ingino to help guide us! Deb is great at quickly boiling things down to key takeaways. Here, she picks a particularly timely nugget out of a great podcast from John C. Maxwell, while offering the link to his full 7 steps. I found it well worth carving out time for!
 
Many of us are still doing year-end giving! Today, my dear friend Nancy brought this New York Times newsletter: A giving guide to my attention. There’s a lot of useful stuff in here. As we might expect, it offers resources from a much more global viewpoint than we do, but also noted that LOCAL giving — including to local news sources —  is really important.
 
Along those lines…this piece written with David Okorn of the Long Island Community Foundation,“Foundations for the Common Good — A Call to Action” remains timely. If you want to quick-update it to account for the impacts of the last few years, just underline the sense of urgency in triplicate. The article explains growing holes in the LI safety net and how we might fill them. It also shares how the LI Community Foundation itself helps givers make the best use of their philanthropic dollars, as well as how it serves issues they’ve identified as critical directly.
 
Here’s a list of JUST A FEW incredible local organizations that could use our support...use it as a starter guide. We look forward to sharing many more in the New Year!
 
We’re also going to keep repeating this: The idea that a not for profit organization should be judged primarily by the % going to admin and fundraising is just plain wrong! Find out why in this article written with Marian Conway of the NY Community Bank Foundation: “Stop the Nonprofit Budget Fantasy. It’s Not Right!”  Marian’s run a foundation for years and in one way or another served and studied countless organizations. She literally has a Ph.D awarded for her dissertation on “What are the general operating expenses for nonprofits and who pays them.” She knows what she’s talking about. Please listen to her!!!
 
Finally, New Year – New Beginnings. Let’s talk a little bit about resolutions. Considering joining the Dry January tradition? Dr. Jeffery Reynolds, CEO of Family & Children’s Association has some great tips that I think can also be applied to helping follow through on other pledges, especially when paired with this good advice from Forbes.com on how to actually keep your resolutions.
 
Among mine, resolutions tend to involve committing to lifelong learning and development. Toward that end, I find the Farnam Street Newsletter to be something I regularly open and intend to dig more deeply into next year. This week, among other things, they offered snippets from their most downloaded podcasts. As for just a few favorite sources of local guidance, I really appreciate the Fair Media Council channel on YouTube, and everything Vision Long Island puts on its Vimeo.
 
I also resolve to more deeply appreciate our wonderful local treasures. Thank you, Cindy Mardenfeld, for sharing this Newsday article on the membership perks of Long Island attractions(it’s Newsday, so, please forgive the paywall). It covers all sorts of great museums, theaters, kids places and parks. The best part is knowing they’ve hardly scratched the surface!
 
Let me know your year-end reflections and resources, and what you’d like to see focused on in 2022. Thanks!!!

Help Jayette Send Care Packages to “The Forgotten People”

Photo of Jayette Lansbury and a Rose by Katheryn Laible

Photos of Jayette Lansbury and a Rose  Katheryn Laible

The very first feature article Synchronicity published was about Jayette Lansbury: Tireless Champion for People who are Impacted by Mental Illness and for Compassionate Criminal Justice Reform. In that piece you can read about how Jayette responded to a most unfortunate circumstance by determining to mix the education she had started with a driving passion to be a part of the solution for all families.

“Is it hard to talk about these things? Sure it is,” says Jayette, “but I don’t care about stigma anymore. Things are hard enough without worrying about what people think. People have to remember that mental illness knows no cultural or socioeconomic boundaries. Any one of these people could be your child, your spouse, your friend. We’re all God’s children and we’ve got to help everyone.”
 

Right now — you can help her send love and practical care to “The Forgotten People.” She’s collecting:
 
1. Brand New Socks
 
2. Puzzle Books
 
3. Signed Cards — A simple hand-written “Happy Holidays” will do to make it personal.
 
4. Candy Canes
 
She needs them all by December 20th.
Arrange drop off by emailing lansburyhunt@aol.com or calling her at 631-988-7619.
Thanks!


You can hear the love in Jayette’s voice when she talks about the 200 pairs of socks and crisp holiday cards she annually sends to the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center. You can also hear the pain when she explains why it’s so important:

“There are roughly 2,000 people in forensic psychiatric facilities in NYS. They are called ‘The Forgotten People.’ So many of those people have been abandoned and really do feel forgotten. One of them happens to be my son, but I’m not going to let him be forgotten. I’m not going to let ANY of them be forgotten. This helps them know there are people outside who care.”

Also! If you will, please set aside magazines and books that might be shared with people held in that facility. She’ll be collecting those in the New Year. Thanks.

Profile in Kindness: Mackenzie Johnston

Sometimes, social media is terrible. There are certain people, though, who make it wonderful. We have been fans of Kim Skillen since we met her back in 2012 as part of an intrepid tribe, the “Friends of Long Island,” who rose up in the wake of Superstorm Sandy to help their neighbors across the South Shore. Soon after we “friended” her, we started seeing posts about her artistically talented, delightfully, uniquely-herself daughter, Mackenzie.

Continue reading