When GreatNews.Life Executive Director Jenny Craig-Brown began All About the Girls in 2014, it was guided by a need to highlight the women doing incredible things to create a supportive, successful, and encouraging community. After a decade of growth and evolution, this ideal still runs strong.
The 10th All About the Girls event saw a new class of inspiring women take the stage, sharing their stories of growth and overcoming. It isn’t these speeches that make All About the Girls a special event, though. It’s the chain of kindness that causes it to ripple into the community.
Donna Flanagin, owner of Flanagin’s Bulk Mail, has been a supporter of All About the Girls since the beginning because of the impact she has seen. This year, Flanagin sat with two women who felt the ripple firsthand: her friends Sharon Jepsen and Madelyn Flaherty.
Jepsen was the recipient of one of the decorative signs donated by Board & Brush in Valparaiso, which recently hosted its studio grand opening.
“She won a board that said ‘We got this.’ It was a small miracle that she received this particular board,” Flanagin said. “Sharon’s 29-year-old granddaughter is fighting glioblastoma brain cancer, which has no cure. Within the last few months, she has undergone several surgeries to keep her alive for as long as possible for her 7-year-old daughter.”
Thanks to the kindness of Board & Brush’s Cortney Bower, Jepsen received a gift that warmed her heart, a warmth she shared with her granddaughter when Jepsen gifts her the sign. Madelyn had a similar experience. As All About the Girls came to a close, Madelyn asked event staff if she could take some of the fans created for the event to use at an upcoming party. She found herself leaving with even more.
“Madelyn is a miracle friend who almost died this past year from Non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” Flanagin said. “She is having her 60th birthday celebration this month and was so excited she could have some of the All About the Girls fans for it. When she was also offered the extra swag bags, she grabbed as many as she could carry. She’s an avid baker who uses baking as therapy, and she can use the bags to gift her baked goods. She was so appreciative.”
While the All About the Girls event provides women throughout Northern Indiana with a night of fun, community, and inspiration, its true impact is seen in the everyday kindnesses it inspires and perpetuates.
“This is the ripple effect of All About the Girls that you may never hear about,” Flanagin said.
