This week, we were surprised by an additional grant from Amazon Community Impact thanks to the students in the Youth Philanthropy program at the The Community Foundation.

In the room, there was a lot of conversation about impact and ripple effects and about how the people doing the work don’t always get to see the good they help create in their communities.

That part stayed with me.

I often tell our Girls on the Run coaches something similar. You may not always get to see the privilege of the seed you planted. You might never witness the moment a girl uses her voice instead of shrinking. Or the day she sets a boundary. Or the quiet choice she makes years later to be kinder to herself because she learned the language for that once.

But the seed still matters.

I know this because I still remember something my sixth-grade teacher wrote in my yearbook.

“Kathy, my sweet quiet girl, you have a bright light inside of you. Let your light shine for others to see.”

She probably doesn’t remember writing that. It was one of hundreds of notes she wrote over the years. But I remember it. Decades later, I remember it.

I was a shy, quiet girl then, afraid to take up space or say the wrong thing. And somehow, over time, that sentence became part of the reason I learned how to stand up and speak at all.

That single sentence did not change my life overnight. It did something quieter than that. It stayed. It gave me language for who I was becoming before I knew how to name it myself.

That’s how this work moves.

Not loudly. Not all at once. But faithfully. Through moments that feel small at the time and turn out to be foundational.

One of my favorite quotes is “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Over the years, that has come to mean cheering on the work of others. Being genuinely curious about what people are building. Helping make connections when I can. And reminding folks during community giving days to find and fund their passion, even if it isn’t my organization.

Because that’s what makes a community.

People choosing, again and again, to show up fully for what they care about. Supporting it with their whole heart. Trusting that even when the outcome isn’t visible, the act itself matters.

None of it is wasted.

This work isn’t always loud or measurable. But it shapes people. And years later, sometimes decades later, it shows up in ways we never could have planned.