2020 has been a year of challenge and re-imagination at Opportunity Knocks. This has meant drawing on inspiration and love from our Warriors and our community to continue to meet the needs of young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. Our staff has responded to these challenges with resilience. We have restructured programming to provide both a virtual program platform as well as safe, cohort-based in-person activities so that all Warriors could maintain access to life skills, wellness and social connections with friends and peers.
The perseverance of our Warriors throughout this period has also been remarkable. “I missed being with all my friends,” said Warrior Madeleine Gancer. “It feels a little different and weird, but it felt amazing to be back.”
Despite the hurdles within our organization, we felt it necessary to spread love back to our community, especially those dealing with job loss and food insecurity issues. Our social enterprises, which employ many of our Warriors, worked to spread love to community beneficiaries through donated meals from our Knockout Catering, donated produce boxes to families in need from our Knockout Farm, and donated harvest to local food pantries.
We are grateful to our community of supporters who have helped our mission meet this moment thus far but we’ve still got a long way to go. The cancellation of many key fundraising events continues to constrain our financial resources. In the words of Warrior Jess Wood, “People should support Opportunity Knocks because you’re supporting people who love to do activities and an organization who accepts people for who they are. Please support OK so that the staff can pour their love out to us and have the resources they need to support us. Thank you so much. We love you all.”
Consider a donation this season so that we can continue to create opportunities, change lives, and spread love. Love Grows Here. Visit opportunityknocksnow.org/annual-giving-fund
