Each year at Funds For Learning, we set aside a week called Guide Appreciation Week. It is an intentional pause to recognize the people who do the day-to-day work of guiding schools and libraries through the E-rate process.
For our clients, this work often shows up as deadlines met, questions answered, and complex requirements made manageable. Behind that experience is a team of professionals who bring care, precision, and commitment to the work, often under significant pressure. Guide Appreciation Week gives us space to step back and acknowledge that effort.
The week includes time together, shared meals, moments of recognition, and opportunities for reflection. But like most meaningful things, what matters most is not the activity itself. It is what those moments reveal about who we are and how we work.
A few guiding principles stood out to me this year.
Gratitude Works Best When It’s Specific
One of the simplest moments of the week turned out to be one of the most meaningful: handwritten notes. Not generic thank-yous, but specific acknowledgments naming the work, the effort, and the moment that mattered.
That kind of gratitude lands differently. It tells someone, “I see you.” Not just the outcome, but the care behind it.
That is something we try to practice year-round. Our best work does not come from broad praise. It comes from paying attention and taking the time to acknowledge the good clearly and directly.
Time Matters
This year we recognized Guides at one year, two years, five years, and fifteen years. Those milestones represent very different seasons of life and work, but they share one thing in common: commitment over time.
Longevity at Funds For Learning is not about staying comfortable. It is about continuing to show up, learning, adjusting, and carrying responsibility forward. It is about choosing the mission again and again, even as the work evolves.
That kind of commitment does not happen by accident. It is built one filing window, one client call, and one problem solved at a time.
Connection Builds Trust Faster Than Process
Bowling lanes, card tables, shared laughter. Those moments may look like a break from the work, but they are not separate from it.
Trust grows when people see each other as people. When titles fade. When no one is trying to impress anyone else.
Strong teams do not just execute well together. They know each other. And that familiarity shows up later when deadlines are tight, when stakes are high, and when someone needs help without having to explain why.
Creativity and Precision Belong Together
Pottery, games, quiet conversations. None of that diminishes the seriousness of our work. In fact, it complements it.
Our work demands precision, accuracy, and discipline. But it also benefits from creativity, patience, and care. The best outcomes come when people are fully engaged, not just with their skills, but with their attention and curiosity.
Those traits do not turn on and off. They carry from how we create to how we serve.
This Mission Is Shared
Guide Appreciation Week is not leadership thanking a team from a distance. It is a reminder that this work belongs to all of us.
Every role matters. Every contribution adds up. Every client served represents real people, real schools, and real students.
The impact we have is collective, and so is the responsibility.
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As we move forward, my hope is that the spirit of this week does not stay contained to a calendar. That it shows up in how we speak to one another, how we notice good work, and how we carry the mission forward together.
Thank you to every Guide for your professionalism, your commitment, and the way you continue to shape this organization through your work and your presence.
That is what Guide Appreciation Week is really about.
