We Are in this Together!

I wonder how we will continue this togetherness after COVID-19. I believe that wonder at human life can keep violence from brewing. Humanity is not an exclusive club. Lives, small, crooked, and great, all belong.

We are in this together!

While keeping informed, suffering with, and praying for the multitudes throughout our planet affected in numerous ways by COVID-19, I am thinking and wondering how this time is going to transform us. In some way we are all victims of the coronavirus: Some are very sick, some are recovering, and some among us have died. Others of us do not have food to feed our families and wonder whether our jobs and our businesses will be there when this ends. So many unknowns! When will it end?

I am a volunteer fundraiser for Havern School, a school that has been serving children since 1966 and is the last of 27 schools begun by the Sisters of Loretto in Colorado. This independent school nurtures the potential of children with learning disabilities. Several of our families struggle to send their children to a school that can give them the education and therapies they need to be eventually mainstreamed into their public schools. These children are not defined by their disability; they simply need the tools to learn differently. With the help of Havern School, exclusively for children with learning disabilities, they become confident learners with the skills to succeed in life and ongoing educational endeavors. They succeed because they belong.

As I wonder, I ask, who among us were the parents, grandparents or great-grandparents who had the luxury of reading to their children at night? If you did, your children had a privilege that children of parents who had to work the night shift did not have.

The top 20 percent in this country will continue to educate their children in the best schools in their community, beginning with preschool and kindergarten. I admire that, I value that, and I thank you. My concern is this: If we are in this together, how am I going to be transformed? Who among us will share, who will give to the 80 percent who do not have the resources for the education they need?

As a fundraiser who knows how educational institutions, especially those for children with special needs, will be critically affected, I offer you an opportunity that I believe many in the top 20 percent will consider. This virus offers us all opportunities to rethink our values and our priorities.

If you are a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent who has committed to educate your two, three or more children, how about considering educating an additional one — making the same kind of commitment that you have for those who are part of your immediate family?

As a woman who worked in educational institutions in Denver — St. Mary’s Academy, Loretto Heights College, Regis University — for 49 years, I have seen time and again the generosity from the 20 percent. It is not only necessary, but also able to transform lives. How much more do we all need to continue this generosity during these trying, yet hopeful, times!

I invite you to join me in helping those with a diagnosed learning disability to get the specialized education they need now.