Happy 2022 To You!

We kick off 2022 by sending out love to our friends and family. As more time goes by and we continue to see challenges in this world – still in the pandemic, too much selfishness and not enough togetherness, life still too hard and stressful for many people, etc. – we are more convinced than ever that love needs to be the foundation for our lives. With more love and more hope leading the way, we know this world will be a better place, so we anchor our resolutions for 2022 around living our lives with more love for others. And we send a little extra love out to those of you who lost loved ones or experienced unique challenges over the last 12 months. 

On the family update fronts, Mason is now 10 years old and in 4th grade. He loves playing with other kids (be sure to call us if you are ever looking for a playdate as Mason’s interest in hanging out just with us for more than 5 minutes is close to zero) and he continues to be obsessed with Legos, Minecraft, YouTube and his Nintendo Switch. Mason doesn’t love school, but he is getting more comfortable with it these days (and we are proud of him for it), and he is getting to the age where he likes to think he is more grown up in certain areas but can’t really pull it off (he loves talking about Squid Game but has never seen it). We continue to work at being better parents (there is always work in that category), enjoying the parenting journey and better managing the stress that comes with parenting. 

Mae is finding a lot of joy working about 25 hours a week as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer for fun start-up companies. Her most recent clients include Everytable (a delicious, healthy meal subscription that charges less in low-income neighborhoods), FreeBird (a rewards app for going out to restaurants, bars and related), H2ops (an awesome hops based sparkling water), and she hopes to start working on a fun new client soon (to be announced shortly – we don’t want to jinx it). Mae continues to enjoy the flexibility that consulting brings her so she can spend more time with Mason and have some time for herself (her tennis game is starting to come together). That being said, like many working moms who have been in the professional world for a long time, Mae sometimes feels the urge and the pressure to go back to work full time so that is something she will continue to work through.

Marshall joined the non-profit Great Public Schools Now (GPSN) full time in February 2021 and launched the LA Education Recovery Fund in his role at GPSN. The Recovery Fund raised close to $10 million in 2021 to fund high quality nonprofit organizations to provide additional academic, enrichment and health related supports to children in Los Angeles who were most impacted by the pandemic. In the Summer of 2021, the Recovery Fund partnered with Los Angeles Unified, dozens of non-profits and key philanthropists to help ensure every student living in poverty in LA had access to in-person summer enrichment programs in their neighborhoods. In addition to his work at GPSN, Marshall continues to actively support candidates for elected office that he believes will advocate strongly for dramatically improving the education and support we provide to our most underserved kids – some of you may have received a fundraising email or two😊. Marshall continues to work on (and at times struggle with) how he can best bring more happiness to others through his work while also trying to be a good dad, husband, and friend, stay healthy, and find a fun activity or two for himself (Marshall is happy to report that he started playing hoops again – send over some good vibes for no injuries). 

We hope to get a chance to see many of you in person in 2022. We are so grateful for our friends and family and for all the people we have connected with throughout our lives – we are who we are today in large part because of the people who have impacted us along the way. We enter the new year with a commitment to keep growing as individuals, to do more to make our world a better place, particularly for those individuals who face the greatest challenges, and to ground our lives in love.  

Happy New Year and sending love out to you for 2022!  

Mason, Mae & Marshall