Breakfast at Sally's

For the past few years, my husband, Ken and I have been the Co-Chairs of the Hopelink Part of the Solution donor group that supports the important work and mission to serve homeless and low income families, children, seniors and people with disabilities and to promote self-sufficiency for all members of the community to help people make lasting change.  They have been doing this work since 1971.

Marilyn Mason-Plunkett, Richard LeMieux, Cathi Hatch

Last night was the annual recognition and thank you event for the members of the Part of the Solution group held at the Bear Creek Country Club in Woodinville.  There were around 90 people attending.  Hopelink CEO Marilyn Mason-Plunkett shared many statistics with the audience including the number of people requesting services annually, the number of people served, and the amount of food distributed through the Hopelink food banks (I think she said 3 million tons!),

One of the highlights of the evening was hearing from guest speaker, Richard LeMieux.  Richard shared his story of achieving the American dream by owning his own business, owning a house on the water, owning cars and boats and artwork and travelling extensively for pleasure until one day when his business became obsolete with the advance of technology

Richard LeMieux with Hopelink Board Chair, Pat Vache

He was forced to sell all of his possessions one by one in order to continue to meet payroll and and ultimately he lost his business, his home, his wife left him, and he was living in his car.  He shared his inspirational journey to reclaim his life after he was prevented at the last moment of taking his own life by his little dog, Willow.  He calls Willow, a little nine pound bichon frisee, his lifesaver.

Eventually while still homeless, Richard wrote a book which I am looking forward to reading.  It is titled Breakfast at Sally's and the title refers to when he finally went to the Salvation Army in Bremerton looking for food and shelter and began to make the turnaround.

The Book:  Breakfast at Sally's

Just as in Richard's story, one of the primary outcomes that Hopelink strives so hard to achieve is the success of helping people become self-sufficient.  A worthy goal indeed!  Congratulations and thank you to all the donors who are Part of the Solution that enable this good work to be accomplished!