My Business - My Legacy!!

by Karen Carter, Infinite Hands Initiative

As the founder of a charity that provides entrepreneurial workshops to women in local shelters to date there is currently 17 plus female business owners who operate a home based/small business.  Plus, every child of a women housed in the shelter are provided a new coat and pair of gloves to protect them from the cold weather during the winter season.  To date that number is over 200 children.  Each year we begin again at a different shelter in hopes of offering as many women the same opportunities of making their dreams become reality and changing from being dependent to becoming self-sufficient. 

The purpose for the charity is heartfelt and with each new workshop sessions I embrace the opportunity of hearing the women share their dreams and visions, many come to us feeling   down cast they do not have hope of their dreams coming true.  Once they learn the theory of starting a business is the same as the theory of eating an elephant by taking one bite at a time it become attainable to them.  Then and only then do we see their faces light up as expectations become within reach.   I keep relating to each new business owner as the flowers or fruit in my garden each year.  With some time, good soil, feeding and nurturing a beautiful flower/business owner comes to full bloom.

I often entertain the thought of leaving the charity (the mission) I started as my legacy when I no longer exist.  The continued care Infinite Hands Initiative provides to each woman we come in contact with each year is heartwarming.  Seeing the joy on the faces of mothers and their child (ren) during the Koats4Kids distribution each year when they receive their new coat and gloves is priceless.  Little did I know or could ever imagine  while setting up this nonprofit that it would have such an impact on the lives of people whose paths we cross in the interest of helping them to live better by changing the paths they choose to walk in life.

With this idea in mind and with each year I hope to make the right connections, meet the right funders, volunteers and board members to always keep the main focus on “impacting lives for the better.”  By doing this in an honorable fashion I can be assured that long after I’m on the other side of the dirt this charity, Infinite Hands Initiative, will become known as a charity that makes a difference in the lives of women in shelters and provides warmth to their children.  Needless, to say I, Karen Carter, Founder and President of Infinite Hands Initiative would love to have my epitaph read, “By the fruit of my labor and the businesses we helped to establish, great things came to life.”  May my legacy be the charity I formed the people it serves and the lives it touches.