On Thursday, July 16, we took over the upstairs room at Cornbread in Maplewood and filled it with the kind of people who make this work possible, some who have been with us for years, and a good number who had never met us before that evening.
The whole point of the night was to put our founders, our board, and our volunteers in one room with anyone who has ever thought about getting involved and did not know where to begin.
An open door, on purpose
Most people who want to help a nonprofit never do. Not because they stopped caring, but because the entry point was never obvious. We wanted to remove that gap entirely with one night that brought people together.
What the night looked like
Cornbread’s upstairs room was set in our Joi’s Angels blue, kept deliberately simple.
The kitchen made two things in our honor: Joi’s Angels Sweet Tea and Joi’s Angels Peach Cobbler.
We had light refreshments on hand, but we encouraged everyone to order from Cornbread’s full menu because putting dollars into a beloved local business is its own form of giving back.
Co-founders Joi and Mark Smith talked about how this started and why need has always been our only requirement for acceptance. Board President Natasha S. Alford spoke about where the organization is heading, and board members took questions.
Our thanks to Board Vice President Toni Ince for taking the lead on organizing the evening, and to the entire Cornbread team for their hospitality