Happy New Year to all you Friends of ConnectUS!

As of yesterday you just completed a very successful 18th year! Those of you who remember
the beginning may remember me going on and on about the “Stone Soup Theory.” For anyone
who hasn’t read the Stone Soup children’s book, the story is basically about a rabbit or
something who has a pot of water and a stone and says he is going to make soup. Of course
the townspeople (townsrabbits?) didn’t think that was possible, but one of them stepped up
and said they had a carrot to contribute. Then one by one all kinds of contributions appeared
and voila! They had a very good soup! Well, because you all contributed your time, talent and
treasure as they say, we were able to add two new locations, and many, many (I have lost
count) people with severe, multiple disabilities were able to enjoy doing meaningful activity
and extend their friend group while producing hundreds (again I have lost count) of story kits,
math game kits, cards, winter warm up kits, unique puzzles and craft and activity kits for
hospitals, schools, shelters, tutoring and other activity programs.

I want to thank you all for what you have done! First of all, thank you to the people who
volunteer to be on our board and to our “advisors,” including Laura, Rose, Bethany, Jenny,
Randy, Tom, Nancy, Adrienne and Lynda. We wouldn’t be allowed to exist without a board!
Thank you to Jenni D and Laura for more things than I can list. Thank you to the spaghetti
dinner kitchen crew, including Laura B, Laura W, Carol, Cindy, Cathy, Jody, Roseanne Jenny,
Ryan, and Randy, servers Tom, Cathy, Carolyn and Ryan, Dessert crew Kathy and Alex P, Dining
room staffers Mary, Jenni, Joanne, Margaret, Jeff, Quinn, Porter, Trevor, Alex R, Charlotte,
Danielle, Bethany, Henry, Ann, Derek, Remi, Linda, Phyllis, Dave, Brian B and all the people who
jumped up without being asked and cleaned up at the end, and a big thank you to everyone
who donated or bid on an auction item—or many, as some of you did, and of course, to the
cake donors!

Thank you to the Third Thursday crew who put together everything we need in advance,
including Kathy D, Kathy G, Kathy P, Joanne, Phyllis, Mary, Judi, Marianne, Valerie, Janet,
Michelle, and Donna, to the puppet crew including Joanne, Rose, Ann L., Mary Beth, Alex,
Sydney, Colin, Carter, Sandy, residents of Waldon Wood and the St. Kenneth Confirmation
candidates. Thank you to the weekly Cooke volunteers Carl, Kathy, Marilyn, Jeanne, Marianne,
Joe, Beth, Cam, Alex, Devyn, Kendall, Sharon, Kim, Russell, Yvette, Beisan and Yara. Thank you
to connectors Katie Sch., Jessica, Elaine, Aly, Tina, Erin and Esther at CWO
(www.communityworkopportunities.com) Pat at Grosse Pointe North, Jean and her crew at the
Porch (www.frontporchdetroit.org) Vikki, Crystal, Yara and Nour. Thank you to all the hard
working ConnectUS participants at Cooke School, CWO, Hillside, Grosse Pointe North, Grosse
Pointe South, Madison, Roosevelt and the Kindness Club at Autry. Thank you also to Professors

Morano, Montmorency, and Jolly, Mr. Pak, and all the students in Lawrence Tech and Northville
High School engineering classes for designing and building new devices for us.

Thank you to Carl and Randy who are always willing (or pretend to be!) to build any crazy thing I
ask them to build, and to Dave, Phyllis and Sandy who are always willing to deliver, to the
Koontz family and to Cindy and Norm for all sorts of things and a very special thank you to Mr.
N. for generously providing us space for another year.
Thank you to everyone who bought or sold a raffle ticket, to the Village Club Foundation, The
Northville Education Foundation, and to all of you individual donors who I was told not to
name for privacy reasons. You know who you are, and we would be NOTHING without your
generosity!

I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. If I have, please know that I greatly appreciate everyone’s
efforts, including yours, and I am sure I will wake up in the middle of the night yelling OH NO
when I remember. I would also like to send a special thanks to the families of our friend Val
who volunteered in the kitchen for many years and our friend and enthusiastic hat knitter June
who both went to heaven this year. Thank you for sharing them with us.

God Bless you all for your contributions. I hope 2026 is a safe, healthy, happy year for all of
you.

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With love,
Eileen