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Make Life Good. Honor Our Fallen.
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. A day to honor those who have fallen in their service of this great country. While you might find yourself distracted by the BBQs, music, parties, and excitement over the coming summer season, the flowers with which we decorate the graves of our soldiers remind us how much we’ve lost—and how much we’ve gained from those losses.
Memorial Day demands a personal reflection from each and every one of us. It calls on us to assess our situations. It urges us to appreciate how far we’ve come and to continue working to go even further.
Whether you have been directly affected by a soldier’s sacrifice for the United States of America or not, most can identify with the feeling of a “debt” that is owed. The feeling that, in the face of such tremendous sacrifice, you and I must do our part to continue developing this country. We must work, contribute, give…that way, the vision our cherished fought for may be realized.
This vision is likely one we won’t ever come to see with our own eyes. It entails incredible amounts of time, energy, tolerance, and compassion. So long as we remember, however, to not waste our time, to invest our energy into virtuous ventures, to practice tolerance everyday with everyone, and to show compassion to our fellow citizens, we will make progress.
We at Make Life Good believe that progress is an acceptable and appropriate “monument” to our heroes. We incorporate this belief into our business and seek to inspire others to make progress in the same way we have been inspired ourselves. This Memorial Day, and every day, make a point of reflecting and remembering. Do what you can to honor our heroes and make a lasting impression in your community.
Make Life Good. Honor Our Fallen.
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I Run To “Make Life Good” For Others
It’s a basic human movement, putting one’s foot in front of the other. This simple movement, running, is used as a physical outlet for some, pounding the roads or trails enjoying the changing colors of the seasons, snow melting revealing the green signaling spring.
For others, it’s an emotional outlet, something that provides an environment of calm and escape from stresses at home and work, the place where you can go to forget and tame former addictions or obesity and create a sense of hope and accomplishment.
Running is also a simple and powerful endeavor where millions of people worldwide get out and move to raise awareness and money to fight disease, support emotional wounds of soldiers, raise money for families in need, help children receive a better educational opportunity, among many so many other charitable purposes.
On March 26th, 2016, The Make Life Good Company was fortunate enough to support CharityTeams.org (www.CharityTeams.org), led by company co-founder Mike’s long- time friend, Susan Hurley, during her team’s run from Hopkinton to Chestnut Hill during their training run of 21 miles in preparation for this year’s Boston Marathon. This incredible group of runners (in addition to other similar groups of runners) raise millions of dollars every year in support of dozens of organizations - all to “make life good” for their friends, family and even strangers. Every footstep is a step closer to running the 26.2 miles of the marathon, and with every step, the hope of making a difference becomes louder and louder in their minds as it does with crowds lined on the streets of Boston. The personal victory is only surpassed by the work each individual has done to raise awareness, and funds, for their particular cause.
I have raced the Boston Marathon twice and raised money for various charities in the process. So I know first hand how extremely difficult it is for the all the runners who are part of CharityTeams.org, and the many other groups, trying to raise money for their organizations.
So with all that said, we at The Make Life Good Company have created a unique “runners” t-shirt inspired by CharityTeams.org and all the racers running for charity with the slogan "I Run To Make Life Good For Others." Check it out here: bit.ly/1oqvjnv.
So, if you are running any race for charity, and you purchase our specially-designed t-shirt, please let us know your charity and your fundraising page (You can give us this information on our check-out page in a “note” to us.) Then, we will distribute this information to all of our social media outlets to help you with your final push to your goal.
Or, if you’d like to purchase our t-shirt but do not have a charity, please go to www.charityteams.org and pick one of the charities listed on the “races and services” tab and then “Boston” to get a list. Choose the one you’d like to support.
Whichever option you select, we will donate $5.00 to the charity you’ve chosen for each tee you purchase.
I, like you, run to “make life good” for others!
Mike Sullivan, Co-Founder
The Make Life Good Company
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Vote! Make Life Good!
It seems like such a simple act - the act of voting. Yet, as many people know, very few people actually vote. What is sad about this is that our country asks very little of us. At one time the United States expected people to serve in the military when the draft existed. Now even that act of patriotism is optional.
Isn’t voluntarily voting the least we can do?
Our goal here at The Make Life Good Company has always been to “remind, encourage and inspire” people to “make life good” for others. But, once again, it’s hard to get away from the fact that, when we vote, we too can feel good about what we’ve done.
I like to observe the ways in which we are encouraged by others to engage in activities like volunteerism and voting. When we volunteer we are told that we will feel good “knowing that we helped others.” Yes, that’s good, but I’ve found that the reward is much greater than that! Specifically, I have forged great friendships and learned a lot through volunteerism. And yes, I have also derived great satisfaction from helping others.
When we vote, we are told that “your one vote can make a difference”! Yes it can. But even greater is the knowledge that voting for the right person can “make a difference” for many people throughout our land. That is where the true difference is made.
With that in mind, won’t you vote during this election season? By doing so, you will know that you have made a positive difference in the lives of people in need, somewhere in our country. Voting doesn’t require reciprocation by those who benefit by your decision. In that sense, it is truly a selfless act.
So be sure to vote in this political season and “make life good” for someone else. What a wonderful American right we enjoy, and responsibility we have!
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We Can Do Better
As a teacher at the collegiate level, I am sometimes asked by my International students to “explain” America. It’s a big topic! So I simply respond by saying that we “make big mistakes and then we correct them.” It is not an admission of failure. It is an expression of success. My intention is to convey our willingness to do so, as compared to countries that perpetuate policies and ideas that aren’t good for their people. We knew we could do better.
We see numerous examples of this in our history. We withheld the right to vote from women. We engaged in the practice of slavery. We restricted the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman versus all people who love one another, an issue still playing itself out in our society today. We allege that we are tolerant of all religions, and yet for some religions, maybe not so much. These issues, too, will be resolved over time. Because we do the right thing. Our history has proven that people knew that we could do better, and they did.
In Martin Luther King’s carefully crafted speech at the Reflecting Pool, he suggested, in an ever so delicate way, that America had not fulfilled the promise of equality crafted by its forefathers to our Nation’s people. To all of its people. In other words, Martin Luther King knew we could do better.
The people of our nation face such challenges today, such as human rights, poverty, education, nutrition, health care, housing, and more. It seems the more we work to address them, the target that we strive to achieve keeps moving. The capacity of people to volunteer their time toward this end never ceases to amaze us here at The Make Life Good Company.
And it seems that no matter how much we’ve done as a people, and no matter how much the target moves, we know that we can still do better. Given our history, we know we will. Given the urgency, we should start now.
We hope to meet you on the road to doing better and making life good for all.
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Make Life Good! Partners with Crossroads Rhode Island and YWCA of Central Massachusetts for Facebook Contest
Crossroads Rhode Island won a contest we recently sponsored on our Facebook page (Facebook.com/TheMakeLifeGoodCompany). and won a donation of 25 of our Make Life Good! logo t-shirts.
The other participant in the contest, which began on February 1st and ended a week later, was the YWCA of Central Massachusetts. As the runner-up, they received a bunch of our imprinted Make Life Good! wristbands, which include part of our mission statement to “remind, encourage and inspire” people to Make Life Good for others, as well as postcards with our logo.
Our goal for the contest was to highlight the great work of both organizations in their communities and bring attention to our mission to support groups that Make Life Good! for others. So the contest was a win-win for all of us.
And the contest was simple - whichever organization got the most “likes,” essentially votes, on our Facebook page, would win the contest. We posted two photos combining our Make Life Good! logo with the logos of each organization, sharing them for a week on Facebook. We thought this was a great way to bring some well-deserved attention to the good work of both organizations while also engaging followers.
In the end, Crossroads came out on top with 40 likes.
On February 12th, we presented the 25 Make Life Good! t-shirts to Maria, the in-kind donations manager and volunteer coordinator of Crossroads Rhode Island. While we were there, we took some photographs to commemorate the event (see below).
Crossroads Rhode Island works to make the experience of homelessness as temporary as possible by helping families and individuals secure stable homes quickly. They are actually the largest homeless services organization in the Ocean State today and we’re happy we can support them. We just wish we could do more.
The same goes for the YWCA of Central Massachusetts. They provide safe places for women and girls, build strong women leaders, and advocate for both women’s and civil rights.
We look forward to working with both organizations again in the future.
This was our first time partnering with local non-profit organizations. And it was a great experience for all of us at Make Life Good! It left us inspired to find more ways to recognize organizations and people who make life good for others everyday in their communities.
And we hope you, too, are inspired to take action, to show compassion for those less fortunate, to lead by example, and, above all, to Make Life Good! for others however you can.
We offer several t-shirts with various messages that are designed to remind, encourage and inspire others by showcasing the change you may want to see in the world. So visit our webstore at MakeLifeGood.co.
We hope you continue supporting The Make Life Good Company, Crossroads Rhode Island, the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, and the hundreds of other groups and organizations trying to make the world a better place for all of us.. We can’t do it without you.
Make Life Good's Sean-Paul Fitzgerald with Maria of Crossroads Rhode Island.
