Call To Action

As a young girl, I learned of the suffering of people in our community living on the street, without a roof over their heads and the comforts of home I took for granted. I remember feeling shocked and deeply saddened to learn what the word “homeless” meant. Wanting to help but not exactly sure how, I hatched a plan to make “blessing bags” filled with a few comfort items as a way to give those in need of a small gift of hope and love. With the help of my family, I’ve continued to make and gift these blessing bags annually and brought this tradition into a community organization, National Charity League, where we made it one of our philanthropic activities for our local hospital. I realized then that this little act could be incredibly beneficial to those in need, but could also bring a community together, so I started “Pea’s Blessing Bags”.

By serving in this way, we have the opportunity to more intimately connect with people in need. I hope that in the future, we not only make the bags and donate, but everyone participating on this “blessing bag” journey will be able to sit down with the ones in need or less fortunate and offer their presence and love. I hope that we will be able to not only share our love and touch someone else, but also let their love touch us so profoundly. I want us to be able to hear their stories and situations, from young children to grown adults, and by sitting and listening, I hope you get to feel the difference we are all making in each others’ lives. In my experience, as much connectedness and love as they may have received from me, I  definitely received from them exponentially. I learned about courage, strength, family and protection. I even learned how to laugh at the hard situations. And as much as I hope to continue to give back to my community, I know serving will continue to benefit me in beautiful ways and I hope to be able to share that experience with more and more people.

- Peyton Varner, Founder of Pea’s Blessing Bags