Building Businesses to Building PlayGardens

In 1996, my last year of law school, I interned at the State of Connecticut's Child Protection Division. I was so horrified by what I read and witnessed that I determined that perhaps I'm too "soft" to pursue a career in child advocacy. I moved my focus to taxation and estate planning and considered my role in the protection of and advocacy for children to be strictly as a donor. My estate planning and administration practice flourished, and I didn't want to leave it completely so I eventually began practicing law part time to accommodate a greater time commitment to the business development arena.

When my dear friend Noma adopted from Morocco in 2016, it was so exciting and a long deferred dream of mine resurfaced. I had once hoped to adopt from my country of origin, Bangladesh. It began when I was 18 and visiting my grandmother who served on the board of an organization involved with international adoptions. There was a little girl "too dark" to be adopted and I desperately wanted to take the leap and make her mine. My mother vetoed the idea immediately (of course) but a seed was planted.

One afternoon in 2018 Noma and her sister Amina called me together. They had both recently adopted from Morocco and were devastated thinking about the children they left behind when they brought their sons home. They had been working on an idea. It involved going back to Morocco and building playgrounds and garden spaces in orphanages, magical PlayGardens. Places where hope could bloom. They needed a treasurer and asked if I would serve. What an amazing opportunity! I could now help build the lives of the most vulnerable children and use my arguably dry skill set to do so thus protecting my heart. At least that's what I thought.

Our organization, BLOOM Charity, NFP has taken on a life of its own in three short years. Our four-person board has traveled to Morocco multiple times and met children living in orphanages throughout the country. We have been able to leverage our diverse professional backgrounds and skills to build a really successful nonprofit. To date we have built seven PlayGardens and more on the way.

I say a prayer to make my heart strong each time I enter an orphanage. It works, but perhaps not in the way I had planned. The first picture above is taken on one of my favorite pieces of equipment, PlayWorld's Play Cubes. It is at the ribbon cutting for our fourth PlayGarden in 2019. The young man in that picture is my son. We were able to adopt him last year and after four months in Morocco we brought him home. The second picture is in Boston a few weeks ago. Our older daughter started graduate school in Boston and we found Play Cubes at the park near her apartment. My son and I immediately looked at each other and laughed. What struck me is that our goal has always been to provide children in Moroccan orphanages with the very best equipment that we can find. The kind of commercial equipment that will withstand time and elements. Standing in Boston, an ocean away from Casablanca, and seeing my son gravitate to the Play Cubes, I thought of his friends still living in the orphanage playing on the same structure thousands of miles away. It is difficult knowing that most will grow up there, however, I have seen first hand the hope and joy these PlayGardens provide.

I've continued to practice law and help businesses in all their phases of development through my consulting practice. Being Treasurer of BLOOM Charity, has taught me to not fear sadness or discomfort, but rather to embrace the opportunity to be in the business of hope.