We were lucky to catch up with Grace Berbig recently and have shared our conversation below.
Grace, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My mother was the happiest person I have ever met in my life. Growing up, her joy was infectious- she taught me how to view the world with love. The simplest things would put a smile on her face, like feeling the warmth of the sun or walking barefoot on the grass or the beautiful blue shades of the sky. After she passed away however, it was difficult for me to find that happiness that before had come so easily to me. My dad sat my sisters and I down one day and told us that it is our responsibility to choose joy. Although we could wallow in the devastation of losing our mother for the rest of our lives, it was our responsibility to let her light and joy live through us. It was truly my dad who taught me that happiness is a choice that we make each day, and I have been choosing joy every day since then.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Hi! My name is Grace, I’m 21 years old and I am the Founder and President of Letters of Love, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides emotional support to patients in children’s hospitals through handmade cards. I started Letters of Love in honor of my mother, who battled leukemia while I was ten and eleven. Through my mom’s battle, my two little sisters and I would make her cards every day. Every time we got to visit her at the hospital, I have such vivid memories of all three of us jumping onto her bed and cuddling around her as she read each card lovingly. She would plaster these letters and pictures all around her hospital room, they brought her immense joy and hope. It was a way for my sisters and I to show her that even though we couldn’t be with her all the time, we were always thinking of her and loving her.
My mom lost her battle with cancer when I was eleven years old in 2013. That day, I decided I wanted to devote my life to helping people who are fighting similar battles as my mother had. I was involved in a handful of organizations in high school, but I never felt like I was doing enough. There was always a donation or fundraising minimum, but no one was talking about the importance of emotional support for patients.
When I was 16, I decided to create a club at my high school where my friends could meet up in the art room and make cards for patients at the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota. To my surprise, over 100 of my peers flooded into the little art room, and we were immediately moved to the cafeteria for our next meeting, a few months later becoming the largest club at Orono High School.
My senior year of high school, I decided to make Letters of Love an official 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. We now have over 150 clubs around the world, in over 25 states and 17 countries. We have sent almost 200,000 cards to children fighting a battle that no child ever should, and we strive to teach youth that they are never too young to make a difference.
Letters of Love was created to spread awareness for the importance of love and emotional support for children who are battling a serious illness. I wanted to create something that everyone could be apart of, no matter where their financial giving abilities lay, no matter their age, ability, location.. Something truly impactful.
We now work with high schools and colleges around the world, where thousands of students meet every month to write sincere, hand written letters of love to kids just like them who are battling an unimaginable fight.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the best quality by far has been my passion and my ability to tell my story, honestly. It can be hard to open up about something that was so traumatic for me. My mom was my best friend in the world and I miss her every day, it’s hard to talk about her knowing she isn’t here anymore. In the same breath, nothing makes me happier than spreading the love and joy of my mom. A lot of people tell my that there is a light or glow in my eyes when I talk about Letters of Love, it has given me such a unique and beautiful way to connect to other humans. The second I would have to say is learning how to be confident even when I don’t know what I’m doing. It may sound silly but I was only 16 years old when I started this nonprofit. I had no idea what I was doing. The same was true when I went into my first corporate meeting at 18, asking a huge corporation for a donation for my little idea. I have always been so passionate about LOL, so I truly faked it until I made it (and continue to do sometimes). Being the youngest person in every meeting or interview can be scary, but having confidence in my organization has been the most important thing to me. It also really helps that everything comes back to my mom, I’m doing it all for her.
The third would be watching and learning from the successful people around me. I chose not to go to college after I graduated high school so I could be all in on LOL, and vowed to myself that I would study the successful business people around me. I have had several mentors in the past few years who have taught me priceless information, especially with how to deal with people. With running any business or organization, I think that is absolutely the most important thing to know.
If you are truly passionate about what you do, nothing can stop you or hold you back from reaching your goals. I have been extremely lucky with Letters of Love because so many people were drawn to our mission from the very start, so I quickly had to learn as I went how to operate a nonprofit. Truly anything can be done when you have passion. The only reason something can’t happen is because you gave up on it.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Letters of Love is extremely unique because we can work with any business and any age group. We have tons of businesses who have hosted card workshops for their employees, send card packages home, etc. One of my biggest goals is to partner with Crayola, or a similar arts and crafts company, to sponsor the materials we send out to our clubs. Letters of Love is completely free for our members, so this means we pay for all of the supplies for our over 150 clubs, and reimburse our club presidents for all postage fees to send their cards to us. The supplies get expensive quickly, especially since all of our clubs, especially the college ones, are so huge. My top priority right now is to find a company to partner with to help our clubs remain sustainable so we can continue to grow, and send more cards to the kids who need them most.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact us at [email protected]!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lettersofloveglobal.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lettersofloveglobal/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lettersofloveglobal/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/letters-of-love-global/posts/?feedView=all&viewAsMember=true
