We’re thrilled to share that Michele Neff Hernandez, Founder and CEO of Soaring Spirits International, has been named a 2021 CNN Hero!
Michele was nominated for this honor by Board Chair Greg Roman. She was vetted heavily by the CNN Heroes team (with background checks and references), and she spent two full days filming her episode with the support of many of our widowed community members. We are so excited about the exposure for Soaring Spirits programs, and so proud of Michele and of the people who support this incredible organization!
One of the key focuses of this episode is the work that Soaring Spirits is doing with people who have been widowed by COVID-19. We built a 24 week program designed to address the unique traumas that result from having your partner die because of COVID-19. What we thought was a one-time program is now running a second time for a whole new group of COVID-19 widowed people. Michele’s CNN Hero episode offers a glimpse into the community that is built through the Soaring Spirits programs, and the ways in which Soaring Spirits has expanded to address the needs of this population within the widowed community. Michele’s episode is live now on the CNN Heroes website.
Please share this awesome news and this powerful episode with your network! As the CNN Heroes team shares Michele’s story on their social media channels, you can show your support in these early stages by commenting on their posts about how Soaring Spirits has impacted you (and by sharing their posts with your communities!). We can’t wait to flood their posts with the beauty that exists when love is lived forward in community!
And stay tuned for possible next steps – Each hero has the chance to be chosen as one of the top ten heroes of the year. That designation includes a donation to the organization of $10,000, and a chance to win $100,000 through community voting. What a difference that grant would make for our organization! We will let you know when the top ten heroes are chosen.
Though there is no grant included when being honored as a hero, CNN Heroes does offer each honoree an opportunity to create a GoFundMe for their organization to encourage people who are inspired by the episode to donate in support of the organization’s mission. Though we typically don’t use GoFundMe as a fundraising tool, their partnership with the CNN Heroes team seemed an opportunity we should not pass up. Soaring Spirits has our own dedicated page designed and supported by the CNN Hero team!
We hope that you are as proud as we are of the work of Soaring Spirits International, which will be highlighted in a new way as Michele is honored as a CNN Hero. We are so very proud of Michele and of her vision. Under her leadership, Soaring Spirits has supported more than four million widowed people worldwide. Please spread the word. Michele is our hero. Soaring Spirits offers life changing support globally, to widowed people and their people!