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Interview with Voyage Atl Magazine
Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie McDaniel.
Hi Angie, thanks for joining us today. Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like.
I was a single mother to my now 27-year-old daughter for mostly all of her life. Yes, I had an amazing village, however, there was no one that was there consistently from my daughter’s birth until adulthood.
For the most part, everything was fine financially. However, there were those sporadic moments that I could have used a little bit of assistance. Yes, there were a few that I could’ve probably just asked for help, but I was a very proud person, and my daughter was my responsibility so in those moments, I just figured things out.
Back in those days, I didn’t know of any programs that were willing to assist those that were helping themselves. I always tried to keep her in the better school districts, which meant that we were in better neighborhoods as well. Most programs would look at my material possessions and assume that I didn’t need anything, when in fact at times I did as I was working with only one income.
Based on my life story I decided to start a nonprofit organization that would be willing to assist mothers that are in the same situation that I used to be in. All my life, I have housed many different mothers and their children at no cost, but after my daughter became an adult and I was an empty nester, I chose to figure out a way to still help mothers at not such a close proximity, but on a larger scale. This began the formation of the nonprofit Single Mothers Impacting Lives Everywhere (dba SMILE)
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not,
As far as SMILE is concerned, I had to figure out just about everything concerning the laws and becoming 501c3 certified on my own. I did not realize how much work it would be to have everything done the proper way. Also, when trying to recruit volunteers for fundraisers, at times that can be very difficult as most volunteers/people don’t realize the importance of it all.
See the complete interview HERE
