I am thankful for the people who have believed in me. As a young man I was suspended and kicked out of class more times than I can remember. I was failing in school, lying, and cheating. I felt like like “Public Enemy Number One” amongst the adults in my life. I was pulled aside, glared at, yelled at, and addressed as a major problem weekly.I appeared indifferent to it all. But I was just trying not to expose my true self, my struggling self.This was the case until I was invited to a summer camp and someone there saw beyond my indifferent facade. They saw the best in me and they began to reveal that “best” part of myself to me. That changed my life forever.

I am thankful for all of the people who have invested their time, their wisdom, and their energy in me. Their investments have not been wasted. These mentors, like that camp counselor, have been guideposts showing me another, more fulfilled, path for my future.

I am thankful to have passion and the mental, emotional, financial and physical means to pursue it.

I am thankful to have an opportunity to invest in the lives of young people.

I am thankful to have the support of a community who understands how important this work is. This work of letting people know they are not alone. Letting them know their past does not define them; revealing to them the amazing strength, the resiliency, the humor, the depth that we see in them; that they are needed, their story matters, and their impact is relevant and powerful.

I am thankful for you.

I am thankful to know you; as a supporter, as a student, as a parent, as a partner in this work. I am inspired by the gifts you bring and give so generously to My Voice Music.

I am thankful.

Thank you,

Ian Mouser

Founder & Executive Director