Since its inception in 2008, YELLS has been fiercely committed to serving and empowering the youth of Franklin Gateway so that they see themselves as change-makers in their own community. While it hasn’t always been easy sailing, one of our saving graces has been the fact that our mission has resonated with so many funders who have remained committed to supporting our organization over the years. This month, we would like to spotlight longtime funder Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (LCR) in Marietta, along with church member and YELLS board member George O’Donnell!
YELLS’ partnership with LCR goes back all the way to 2014. By that point, George had been a member of the church for almost 20 years and was looking for new youth mentorship volunteer opportunities when he came across a local news article highlighting YELLS’ recognition by the Atlanta Regional Commission. He contacted Laura at the time to inquire how he and his church might get involved in supporting and uplifting our programs.
“We found out that Laura was moving YELLS from an apartment community that was being torn down on Franklin Road into an office building, and she needed some work done to remodel and I think she had some struggles getting funding for the scope of what she wanted to do,” George said. “My group of retired gentlemen from our church pitched in and tore down walls and did electrical work and plumbing work and drywall work and within about six weeks, got YELLS finished out the way Laura wanted it and they were able to begin operation.”
That was 8 years ago, and in that time LCR has been one of YELLS’ most consistent partners, supporting our programs in many different ways!
Lutheran Church of the Resurrection
George first joined Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in 1995, and he says that what drew him to the church initially was their strong focus on community service. In the past the church has been involved in various community programs aimed at mentoring youth, and when those programs were ultimately discontinued due to lack of funding, George turned to YELLS as a like-minded organization doing similar things for the Franklin Gateway community. What began as volunteer electrical work and building maintenance soon evolved into one of our most long-lasting and reliable partnerships!
“YELLS has been supported by our church financially every year since we first started working with YELLS, and we continue that financial support. We also have a tradition within our church every September to do what we call ‘God’s Work. Our Hands.’, and that’s a denomination-wide effort to energize congregations to help in their community, especially hands-on, helping to do a variety of tasks to help nonprofits or other things in the community. So we have a long tradition of doing touch up paint and painting walls and repairing things at YELLS on that second weekend in September every year,” George said.
LCR has also been known to show up throughout the year to perform maintenance work for our organization, whether it’s plumbing or drywall repairs, electrical work or technology support. George has been a member of the YELLS Board for a few years now, and he has often acted as a facilitator for volunteer opportunities between YELLS and LCR. Many of the retired gentlemen in George’s volunteer group have a wide range of skills and expertise from past careers that they draw upon to make a difference at our organization. All of the technology infrastructure that YELLS has was installed by members of LCR who were former electricians, including the WiFi and the security cameras throughout the building. A group of LCR folks even led a series of workshops that taught our YELLS Community Action Cafe teens how to design and build their own stage for their Cafe!
Remarkably, LCR’s involvement at YELLS still doesn’t stop there! At the beginning of the year, our Mentoring Program was in a bind because their usual meeting place would no longer be available to use. It was through George that we met Mr. Richard Leon, Director of Sales and Marketing at The Radisson Hotel, who opened the hotel doors for our Mentoring Bigs and Littles to meet every week. Richard is also a longtime member of LCR and a good friend of George’s, and this piece of hospitality was one of the most important ways a partner supported YELLS this year. You can learn more about Richard Leon and the Radisson’s involvement in the YELLS Mentoring Program here!
We are forever grateful for the ongoing support of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection and George O’Donnell. As the years go on and people come and go, it’s a beautiful thing to see that our mission of serving the youth of Franklin Gateway inspires other organizations to join us and stay committed to this cause! Thank you George O’Donnell and LCR!
