Last night, we celebrated frontline staffers at our member agencies, alongside The Columbus Foundation and The City of Columbus, by co-hosting a drive-in movie night at Easton Town Center.

It was a special evening, and we hope our bosses felt the appreciation that our community has for them.

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The night featured the generosity of so many in our community, too:

• The Columbus Zoo donated 500 admittance passes, so that every attendee and their family can visit the country’s best zoo;
• COSI donated 150 learning lunchboxes, so that every attendee and their family could take home some science from the nation’s best science museum
• The Columbus Foundation provided gift bags filled with snacks so that everyone had munchies while they enjoyed the feature film: Detective Pikachu.

And lastly, our guests of honor were treated to a video of gratitude, which featured many of our nonprofit CEOs and clients, as well as Dan Sharpe of The Columbus Foundation, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

We are so very grateful that this night came together as it did, and so very grateful to all of our members’ frontline workers for everything they have done and sacrificed and endured–and all the help and hope they have provided–over the last 15 months.

While our frontline staffers know as well as their clients that the pandemic is not over–that poverty is not over; that hunger and homelessness are not over; that racism is not over; that social inequities are not over–we are so very glad that we could hit pause for a few hours to say thank you as a community.

There is so much more to do, but our immeasurable appreciation will never wane for all that our bosses have done.