A Job is a Vehicle

Checking back in with Josette After This Year’s RAH.

“Parlay [pahr-ley, -lee] v. To increase or otherwise transform into something of much greater value.”  

Now I’ll use it in a sentence.  “Josette parlayed her earnings from this year’s Run Across Haiti into a new home for her family.”  

In its formative years, we asked ourselves, “What if the Run Across Haiti was a job creator?”  “What if one day it was Haitian-led?”  In 2017, we took our first steps toward those goals by hiring Josette, Nicole, and Giordani as members of our RAH crew.  I don’t have to tell you that they totally rocked it, but you probably already guessed that.  It’s what happens next that’s most important.  

Josette has vision. To her, the Run was not just an event.  It was a vehicle.  She was planning way beyond that moment and looking well into the future.  A future where she could parlay her earnings into something of much greater value.  

Not long ago, Josette lived in a tent.  Her extended family outgrew the small space, so Josette chose to move, but was faced with the tough decision to leave her kids with her family while she got a few things sorted out.  After the Run, she used her earnings to reunite with her two children under the same roof.  

THIS. This is how it’s done.  Josette blazed the trail and demonstrated what’s possible.  Next year, we will hire more Haitian crew and encourage Josette to share her story early and often.

The application deadline is only a few days away.  Let’s do this. http://bit.ly/2pmqVZ2

Owen Mattison

Director of Job Strategy