Dear Friends,

Every year, the Washington Mindfulness Community makes donations to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, which supports nuns and monks around the world, and the Vihara, which has so graciously shared its space with us (including in the first few months of 2020).

This is a special year. The Foundation is more in need now because of the pandemic. The nuns and monks usually rely on retreat fees to cover their basic necessities, but with the mindfulness practice centers closed to the public, they rely on our generosity to feed, house, and provide health care for them. Recognizing all they do to keep the Plum Village tradition flourishing for us all, we'd like to support them as much as possible. We'd also like to maintain our wonderful relationship with the Vihara.

So we are asking for your donations in the spirit of dana. Our goal is to donate at least as much as we did last year, and hopefully a little more, but we are currently more than $1,000 short of our goal. Please give as generously as you can and make your tax deductible contribution before the end of December by following this link. WMC will then distribute the funds, likely giving about 75% to the Foundation and 25% to the Vihara.

We recognize that this has been a challenging year for many of us, financially as well as emotionally. We fully understand that not everyone is in a position to donate as much as they'd like to right now. Anything you can give will be deeply appreciated. And we can all offer dana by offering our compassionate attention or warm smile to others. As Thay has said, "The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence."

Warm smiles,

The WMC Board of Trustees