Financial Advice for You on Your Road Through Life
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Anything but Common®
Jeff K. Ross
157 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 300, Kalamazoo, MI 49007 • 269.385.0001 • www.jeffkrossfinancial.com Securities and Advisory Services Offered Through Commonwealth Financial Network • Member FINRA/SIPC, A Registered Investment Adviser
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center so kids aren’t out on the streets late at night,” she says, “and I want it to be a support-group system.” She especially wants to help children who have lost parents to violence or prison and young mothers, since she knows how hard it was to be a teen mom. In observation of Vineyard’s 25th anniversary this year and to honor those who have been served by or involved with the ministry, Dance and her assistant organized a Jan. 5 celebration called 100 Seasons of Blessings Dance says she is grateful for volunteers who give freely and expect nothing in return but also for the people Vineyard serves and how they have transformed her. “My background is middle class, and I had all these misconceptions about people different from me. Working here has been a way of breaking down stereotypical ideas and helping me grow up, helping me see how I can be more generous.” In one case, the lesson came from a 6-year-old girl, Nicole. Dance had received a donation of crayons and had given some to Nicole, who loved to draw but had no crayons. “On Christmas Eve, we had a candlelight service,” says Dance. “People were answering the question ‘What are you grateful for?’ and Nicole said, ‘I’m grateful for the crayons I received. I gave them to my cousin because she didn’t have any.’” Another lesson came from a group of street people Dance came to know through Vineyard. A guy was angry at her and looked like he wanted to punch her. The group formed a circle around her, she says, and “this little older woman who had mental health issues said to him, ‘If you lay one hand on Catherine, we will take care of you. We will make sure you don’t hurt her.’ They were going to have to go back to the same neighborhood as this man, while I was going home in my car to a much safer place, but … they stood up for me. “That’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed here. I’ve met people with noble spirits and compassion for others, and they choose to give it to me.” Dance says she wouldn’t trade her Vineyard work for anything. But then this everyday saint lets her human side show through: “Well, maybe if Liam Neeson came along.”
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