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The Attitude of Gratitude – The Giving Tree Drive

The Attitude of Gratitude is how we arrived at the Giving Tree. It is of the utmost importance for me to appreciate what I/we have in this life. This month I am especially grateful for our new office space and how beautiful it has become, not to mention the amazing women who complete The Darlene Umina Group that I get to share this space with!

What comes with having our own space is the ability to do some of the things that I have been wanting to do for years but didn’t quite have the ability. There are lots of fun things to implement on the horizon, however the first is the Giving Tree Drive.

It is an important cornerstone of The Darlene Umina Group to #givewhereyoulive. As such, we have been fortunate enough to come in contact with 4 single moms directly in our community who are going through a tough time. Our goal is to brighten their holidays a bit by lightening the weight of their sleighs. These women are meeting various challenges. One is fighting breast cancer and headed for a double mastectomy in December. Two are disabled one of which has a child who is disabled as well and fighting PTSD. And our last mom has 2 children one of which has a disability and zero support. The kids we will be helping are ages 4, 7, 10, 10 and 14.

The life of a single parent hits close to home for me personally since I was raised by a single mom starting day 1-before day 1 in fact! She did everything she possibly could to show me a great life even when I know it must have seemed literally next to impossible. Yet, all of life’s great lessons I learned from her. Never give up when things seemed too hard, to value education while I watched her put herself through college, it’s never too late to realize the American dream when she bought her first house at 40, and later she taught me the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship. Most importantly my mom taught me that it’s not the “things” you can give that make a great parent, but only love can do that. It is my hope that by helping these ladies with their wishlists they can focus on the love that keeps them going rather than the stresses of the season.

We will be keeping office hours at our office on 1 Central Street in Framingham on Tuesdays and Fridays starting Tuesday 11/27 from 9am to 3pm for anyone to come in and take an ornament off of our giving tree (pictured above)! We will be bringing the gifts to the homes On December 17th. So, we are asking that all donations be in by the 16th.

For any direct questions about the giving tree drive feel free to reach out to me at 508.328.2779 or at darlene(at)lamacchiarealty(dotted)com

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