After moving to Masonic Village, this new donor was impressed with the Masonic Children’s Home and everything it offers to kids in need.
One of Robbie Hoffman’s favorite parables starts with an old man walking a shore littered with thousands of beached starfish after a storm. The old man sees a young man picking up starfish and flinging them back into the ocean. “Why do you bother?” the old man scoffed, “You’re not saving enough to make a difference.” The young man picked up another starfish and tossed it back to the water. “Made a difference to that one,” he says.
Through her support of the children’s home, Robbie personifies the moral of this age-old story.
“We all have the opportunity to help create a positive change,” Robbie said. “If you can’t do it all, do what you can. When it comes to children, you don’t have to have large amounts of money to make a difference.”
In 2012, as a brand new Masonic Village at Elizabethtown resident, Robbie toured the children’s home, as it was one part of the campus she wasn’t familiar with yet. After visiting the cottages and the Resource Center and meeting the children, she was immediately blown away.
“What they do for these kids is so special,” Robbie said. “It’s like they build a little family of their own. It touches my heart because a family doesn’t always have to be made up of a mom and dad. It can be made up of anyone you love, and the children’s home shows that to kids.”
Growing up, education was greatly valued in Robbie’s family, especially since her mother was a teacher. When Robbie’s father fell ill with tuberculosis when she was a young girl, her mother was able to help support the family, with aid from Robbie’s grandparents, until he was back on the mend, which took years. “If it weren’t for my mother’s education and ability to work a job that could support our family, I don’t know where we would have been,” Robbie recalls.
Unfortunately, for some children, when their families experience hard times, they aren’t so lucky.
“There isn’t anything that happens in a child’s life that doesn’t affect them,” Robbie said. “Some things they carry with them throughout their whole lives. I just want to show the kids that there’s a different world out there.”
To Robbie, education and drive are the keys to unlocking that different world. Robbie’s determination eventually earned her a career in public relations, which led her to meet the love of her life, her late husband, Bob.
“Education changes everything,” Robbie says. Though she has only been aware of the children’s home for a few years, Robbie has been impressed with the care and opportunities the children receive with donor support. For the kids at the Masonic Children’s Home, education is more than just studying textbooks and working individually with provided tutors. Education also comes from experience as well as learning from the experiences of one other during cottage dinners and group activities.
“The social aspect of the children’s home is very important, because you can always learn something from someone else,” Robbie said.
Robbie’s desire to make the needs of the children a priority led her to include the Masonic Children’s Home in her estate plans. She worked with the Masonic Charities Office of Mission Advancement and Development to develop a strategy that would benefit her great nieces and nephew as well as the Masonic Children’s Home.
“This way, everyone benefits,” Robbie says. “My great nieces and nephew can remember their Aunt Robbie, and I can also give to the children’s home. It’s a win-win for everyone, and it brings me happiness to give to deserving children.”