I wrote this last year in November and as I re-read this I was struck at how pertinent these words are.  Please read-I added a few more thoughts.

It is that time of year when we take time to focus on thankfulness.  For me, that begins with the gratitude I feel for the work that our foster parents and staff do to care for the children in our care.  I am also grateful for the home-based staff that work crazy hours, drive all over the place, and do so because they are committed to seeing children heal. They do this with joy and patience.

Stop and tell someone today or this week how much you appreciate them.  As we spread good will, it comes back to us tenfold.  Make it your intention to be grateful.  Find pleasure in the small things: the sound of the leaves under your feet, the smell of fall spices, the giggle of a child, the song on the radio, and the gift of relationship.  Friends and family bring us joy, tears, pain, and fun.  Be sure to acknowledge those in your life.  Spread gratitude!  The benefits are significant to you emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being! 

Did you know that the mere act of volunteering increases your happiness and then your happiness spills over to others?  Start the spill over process today and volunteer--make a difference in your church or synagogue, your community, or your school.  Together we can see things change and hearts healed.

Committed to gratitude,

Debi Grebenik

Welcome to the new Maple Star website.  After some internal planning and consideration of our strategic long term goals in terms of our individual state-level programs, we decided to "Upgrade" our website to include a number of new tools and technologies to allow us to better serve our customers by creating a flexible website that allows us to develop more personalized services at the state level, and to create a separate look and feel for each state "portal" that now includes individual blogs, event calendars,etc.  We encourage you to tell us how we are doing, and let us know if you would like to see other features or services added to the site.