Let’s Celebrate
In Minneapolis, where Bellis™ is based, when March arrives, we can begin to smell spring and summer in the air. Or maybe we just imagine we can because our cabin fever is so intense! Either way, this spring and summer at Bellis™ will be exciting. Beginning in May, we are celebrating our 40th anniversary and you’re invited!
For nearly 40 years, Bellis has been a home for stories around adoption and foster care, and more recently, stories around mothers who experienced termination or transfer of parental rights. In June 1983, a compassionate group of mothers in the Minneapolis area, formed the Adoption Option Committee Inc., which we now know as Bellis.
In the years since then, throughout that evolution, we have heard your personal and vulnerable stories. Your openness has inspired our work all along the way. Your lived experiences with all the feelings they hold for each of you, have guided Bellis to offer hospitality, care and support, and to continue daring and innovative work that aligns with the vision of Bellis’ founding mothers.
To celebrate our 40th year, we plan to hold three special events this summer and we want you to join us. They will take place at the Bellis office in Minneapolis. We love to show off our space, made possible by our generous supporters and donors, so we hope you’ll come. Mark your calendars now and watch for upcoming emails and announcements as each event gets closer.
Due to these events, we will not hold our usual spring event, Tea & Talk. At our Volunteers Celebration on July 18, we will announce our 2023 Volunteer of the Year, and throughout the summer we will ask for your donations to support the fall Birth Mothers Retreat as we typically do at Tea & Talk.
Everyone is welcome to join us at any or all of these celebrations!
Open house style—come when you can between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, May 2, A Home for My Story: Celebrating our Founders and our Community
In this kick-off reception, we will recognize both the artists who submitted their work to our inaugural art show and our founders’ families who continue to support Bellis. Everyone is welcome! Please RSVP to join the Bellis Board of Directors and staff for this special event that honors the heart of what Bellis is about.
Tuesday, July 18, Volunteers Celebration
This celebration gives us all a chance to show our special appreciation for the many volunteers who help Bellis, and to cheer for all you’ve helped to accomplish. We want anyone who has volunteered with Bellis over the years to join us, and everyone else to join as we thank them.
Thursday, Aug. 3, Donors Celebration
Our final anniversary celebration will honor our many donors whose financial and in-kind contributions enable us to continue to serve birth mothers, as our founding mothers wanted, along with anyone with an adoption or foster care connection. We invite all our donors to this event, and everyone in the Bellis community as we thank and celebrate donors.
Speaking of Volunteers and Donors
We are grateful for the gracious generosity of many of you with financial support for these events. We can also use the gift of volunteers for each of these events, to help set up, serve refreshments and clean up. Please contact Marketing and Development Director Linda McDonald as soon as possible if you can help with one or all three. Email her at Linda@mybellis.org or call 952-944-0866.