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Handle with

Care Retreat

2009

Once again, the P.A.L. Mission was

selected to be a recipient of funding

from The Women’s Endowment Fund

of the Stark Community Foundation.

The Women’s Endowment Fund is a

permanent endowment to benefit future

generations and increase vital funding

for programs which advance the economic,

educational, physical, emotional, social, artistic, and personal growth of women and to educate and inspire women to become leaders in philanthropy.

The generosity of The Women’s Endowment Fund allowed us to facilitate our 2nd retreat for the young ladies involved in our programs. We are so proud of our youth and their accomplishments and recognize that the hard work they

perform at school, work and home is

often above and beyond that of the

average teenager and young adult. In

addition to the burden of looming

premature independence, most of them

are weighed down by feelings of

abandonment, pain, anger, distrust and

confusion.

This year’s funding from The Women’s

Endowment Fund allowed us to travel to Ohio’s Amish country for an overnight stay in a cozy cabin in the country. The theme ‘Handle with Care’ focused on the emotional baggage we carry as individuals and the lifetime benefits of shedding that weight. An exercise facilitated by guest speaker Kim Dent involved our girls carrying a backpack filled with rocks labeled with their burdens and psychological strife and a discussion about developing tools to deal those distractions. Following that was a fun exercise led by Stephanie Crone which allowed each girl to create a ‘Bag Daddy’ purse that served as a symbolic place to carry the tools they had developed during the retreat to handle their ‘weight’. The event was wrapped up with a visit to an authentic Amish farm and a wonderful meal at a local ‘amish’ restaurant.

Our sincere thanks to The Women’s Endowment Fund of the Stark Community Foundation for their financial support to allow the retreat to occur; our sincere appreciation to Stephanie Crone for facilitating the Bag Daddy event; our love and hugs to Kim Dent for everything she does for our girls; and special thanks to staff members Melanie Burleson and Stacy Lawrence

who used their creative juices to make the weekend fun and memorable.

Click here to view

all the photos from

the retreat.