In honor of Connor…

Our mission:  To give teens and young adults hope and a plan for a future through faith, fellowship, music and motivation with opportunity to serve others.

Our vision:  To present the “big picture” in life through the foundation of faith, giving inspiration, by looking up in our daily lives.  We practice this by paying it forward with opportunity to shine in our walk by faith.

Six months ago, on a Saturday, our lives were forever changed.  Our sweet boy, first born child, and my kindred spirit, was hit by a car and left us for the glories of Heaven.  Walking into a hospital that early morning, about the exact time of this post, was tragic loss.  We have never known such sorrow as to say goodbye to our child.

I was stunned at the amount of lives our son had touched in his brief 19 years. Witnessing dark loss in friends eyes and hearts brought realization of a need to shine light. Our “Chosen to Shine” plan is to give young adults opportunity in ways that would, in Connor’s words, “help as many as we can, fix their bad days.” We do this through God’s grace. We hope to SHINE by Serving others, Harnessing positivity, Illuminating potential, Navigating tough choices, and Emulating christian behaviors.

In order to accomplish this, our Chosen team felt we needed to stand where the light is shining. We realized that the wounded heart is where God has allowed light to enter. The strongest light is the one that shines within you. It is your choice to keep it inside or shine that light to others.

The closer we get to who we were meant to be, the brighter we shine.  It’s not a direction I ever imagined to be in, nor was losing our beloved son.  A team of friends and family have been working diligently these past few months on a plan to shine God’s light, through a new non profit for two beautiful young men.

We do this in honor of Connor – our bright and shining star.  We also do this in memory of Jordan Dupy, Connor’s friend and a beacon of light.  Jordan joined Connor in Heaven only two months later.  They were both “big brothers” and shined light into many lives.  We plan to keep their philosophy of “Letting go” of the negative and choosing to “Shine!”

”In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

We would like to thank all of our friends, family and even strangers that stepped up and lifted us through such tragedy these past few months.  Spring is alive and kids are rejoicing the end of another school year.  We are blessed with friends surrounding us with invites, joy and messages of love.  Our family is grateful beyond words, even as our grief is still as fresh as the flowers blooming around us.

Our board of directors and college board pray that you will join us in  “Chosen to Shine!” Giving opportunity to look up and be happy!

Please visit our website at chosentoshine.com

Shine On!

MamaC

Twitter:  @chosentoshine

Facebook:  chosen to shine