What was your proudest accomplishment of 2023? If the mood strikes you, email me and let me know how the last 12 months went for you
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On New Year’s Day, I was scrolling through Facebook, trying to catch up with the goings-on of long-ago friends, when I came across a post from Julie Bowditch, the new(ish) executive director of the nonprofit CASA Project Worcester County.
Julie had asked her friends on Facebook to share something they were proud of accomplishing in 2023. Her only rule was you couldn’t compare yourself to other people; even if your accomplishment was surviving the year, that was enough.
The comments that followed were pure inspiration, because of their honesty. The replies from Julie’s friends were great because people were acknowledging their struggles along with touting their achievements. People were celebrating staying sober, keeping their businesses open as COVID aftershocks shook their industries, coming out to their families, growing their startups, discovering new event spaces, having babies, leaving toxic jobs, founding new businesses, and finding the perfect black wool sweater.
Julie, of course, replied to every single comment with nothing but support and positivity. This was quite the service she was providing to people. It even enabled me to set aside my well-worn feelings of guilt and obsession over life’s problems to focus on the positives of my 2023 (of which there were many, although for Julie’s post I ultimately choose setting a personal record time for running a marathon). Furthermore, she inspired me to be more like her and enable people to celebrate their achievements. I took the small step of asking Julie her top accomplishment in 2023.
Having taken over as leader of CASA nearly two years ago, Bowditch said she was proud of her staff, board, and volunteers at the child advocacy nonprofit for everything they achieved in 2023. What she didn’t mention on Facebook was these achievements included the CASA Champions for Children fundraiser, which raised a record $110,000 and was voted by WBJ’s readers as the Best Nonprofit Fundraiser Event for this year’s Best of Business awards. Check out all the winners of the 2024 Best of Business awards here.
How about you? What was your proudest accomplishment of 2023? If the mood strikes you, email me at bkane@wbjournal.com and let me know how the last 12 months went for you. As Julie said on Facebook, thanks to the groundwork laid last year, “2024 is looking bright!”
