As of July 1st, 2024, The Hazelnut Movement is officially a nonprofit program run in partnership with Luke 14 Ministries. After working with Luke 14 Ministries over the past year, seeing the heart of their ministry, and getting to know their mission on a deeper level, I knew this collaboration was a perfect fit as we work to raise awareness about disabilities in the communities around us.
Before this collaboration, I spent a lot of time in prayer, considering whether The Hazelnut Movement should be a business or a nonprofit. Last year, I ran the program without asking for a single penny from schools, and I was amazed by
the impact it had on the kids.
I quickly realized that while this program was making a significant difference, schools had no room in their budgets for a program like this. Most schools have cut all extra programming for kids.
This is why, after much prayer and consideration, we decided that partnering with Luke 14 Ministries under their nonprofit umbrella made sense. We envisioned having an even greater impact by working together and knew that we wanted to offer these programs at no cost to schools.
The Hazelnut Movement was founded in 2023 after | visited an elementary school in Chattanooga to read my first self- published book, Hazelnut, It's Time to Get Up. After that day, I knew more kids needed to hear this story. As I started booking schools and classrooms, I realized that the message was not just for kids with disabilities but for everyone: We are all created different and unique on purpose, for a purpose.
The outpouring from these events has been incredible. Students come up after and tell me, "Mrs. Julia, I am in special reading class too," because I share a story about how I always felt different as a kid. Others say, "Mrs. Julia, my sister has a rare disorder too, and we don't know if she will live either," and my
favorite, "Mrs. Julia, I have a disability too."
These moments break me. Kids just want to be known and not feel alone. When they realize that they are different on purpose and that sometimes the thing we struggle with becomes the thing God uses the most, everything changes.
So l ask you to prayerfully consider sponsoring our movement this school year. Our goal to meet our budget is $40,000, and we can't reach that without your help. Please consider giving any amount you can so that we can continue having conversations with kids and adults that are changing perspectives, which we believe will change the world.
You are welcome to donate via the GoFundMe link below or mail a check directly to Luke 14 Ministries at:
Luke 14 Ministries
2348 W Andrew Johnson Hwy, #140
Morristown, TN 37814
Thank you so much for considering partnering with us as we impact lives.
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