Jen Cooper established TFG Charitable Supply & Foundation in 2020. She was inspired by a story her Granny Sue read to her as a child, “The Legend of the Bluebonnet.”

 

Long ago, the Comanche people were suffering from a long drought. They danced, watched, and waited for a word from the Great Spirits to end their suffering. Finally the Great Spirits answered, and told them that they had become selfish, taking too much from the earth. The people needed to make a sacrifice of the most valued possession among them. This would end the drought and famine, and life would be restored. But no one wanted to burn their favorite thing. One by one each person decided that their possession shouldn't be sacrificed. They were all sure that someone else would do what needed to be done. Everyone except for one little girl, an orphan whose parents died in the drought and famine. She decided that her doll, her only toy, the only gift she had to remember her parents, was the thing the Great Spirits needed. The little girl snuck away in the night and burned her precious doll, scattering its ashes into the wind. The next morning, the people looked over the land and saw that the ground was covered in flowers. Every place that the ashes had fallen, bluebonnets were growing from the earth. The people saw this and knew that the Great Spirits had forgiven them. The rains came and the land began to live again.

 

 

Bluebonnets are a call to action. While others hesitated, asking “why me?” the little girl in the story saw a need in her community and worked to meet it. The reality in our modern world is that different people recognize a wide array of needs in their communities. The idea that we’re not supporting the most important or urgent cause can prevent us from doing anything at all. But if we each work towards solving the problems we can see, the collective impact will be profound. We have seen a need, many needs, in our community. No one has called us out to fix these things, but we have an opportunity, so we have set to work. We believe that the needs of our community are diverse, and that many charitable organizations are already serving those needs. That's why TFG Charitable Supply and Foundation's mission is to support other local charities and aid them in their own call to action. We believe that our collective contributions can create a whole field of wildflowers. 

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