“Someday”

Eleven years ago today, life as we knew it changed. Living in New York City on that day, I felt as if I was watching a really bad movie and just wanted to jump up and leave the theatre. But I couldn’t – it wasn’t just a horrible movie – it was reality. In the days following September 11^th I watched a city rally and unite, each person doing whatever they could to help one another. While sitting in the neighborhood fire station with Agatha, my Norwich terrier, I watched as a young mom walked into the station with her small child. I cried (because it’s what I do) as the mom explained that her child wanted to help the kids of the firefighters who had lost their lives; and I watched the youngster offer up his small piggy bank. It was in that moment that Kids Make It Happen was born.

While Kids Make It Happen was incorporated and acquired nonprofit status in 2002; there was no Internet platform to house the social community I envisioned. Remember those days – no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube? The capital I would need to develop such a platform was far out of reach. (One of those times I wished I was a Harvard B-School alum instead of a Pepperdine graduate – as entrepreneurs from Harvard always seem to find just the financing they need no matter the enterprise!) Fast forward to 2012 – we have the technology to make my initial plan all those years ago a reality. So, that being said, one of the original missions of Tanya Lochridge Jewelry still stands – at some point in the future it is my hope that the biz can underwrite Kids Make It Happen. But until that day, I will always hold the memory of the spirit of that young kid in the days following September 11, 2001 and always envision “someday.”