Making The Future Brighter.
Over 15 years ago, me and two of my closest friends tossed around the idea of creating an after school program for young men and women. The program would be like the ones we were a part of in our youth, where you learned about the world beyond the school halls; emotional development, social issues, economics and lots of things you, at that age, didn’t really get anywhere else. Ultimately it was all about being a more complete human, and doing your part to leave the world better than how you found it. Unfortunately, this program never came to fruition and left us trying to help out our communities in other ways.
I took it upon myself to lean into volunteering as much as I could. Whether it was giving a year to Americorps and their Jump Start program, where I led a team of teacher assistants at an elementary school on the West Side of Chicago, volunteering at a local food drive, creating care packets for the children’s hospital, youth mentoring with local organizations or just simply shoveling snow for the elderly, I wanted to help the community. With every organization I helped, with every dollar I gave, I always wished I could do more. I also never stopped dreaming of that youth mentoring program. Which brings us to now, the L.Y.D. Foundation. This foundation is truly about living your dreams and helping others to live theirs. While the ultimate goal is to create a youth mentoring program that can hopefully become a safe haven and bastion of positivity in our youth’s lives, there’s much more to be done. L.Y.D. is committed to helping and supporting like-minded organizations, locally and nationally, which is why every dollar donated to The L.Y.D. Foundation will be split with a Charity of the Month, we will work with these charities each month to ensure that it goes to a good cause. There will also be a day of service where I and whoever wants to join will get hands on and volunteer. This will be boosted with our first initiative “Running for Something.” “Running for Something'“ is a program that allows people to pledge a dollar amount to every mile I run for the month, more information can be found on the “Running for Something” sections of the Projects tab. I am excited for the future of L.Y.D. and all those we will be able to help, with every donation and man hour committed, we will get closer to leaving the world better than we found it. Let’s get to work!—
Chris Smith
Director, Mentor, Dreamer