Mississippi Business Journal
December 21, 2018 E-Edition
by Ross Reily
December 2018
In this issue of the Mississippi Business Journal, we highlight Mississippi’s nonprofits for the first time. This year, we recognize and honor a great group of Mississippi nonprofits that range across a broad spectrum of people and places in Mississippi.
We first conceived Mississippi’s Top Non Profit Awards in 2015, and after many discussions and planning sessions launched our first program last month. Over the course of the past year, we were pleased to receive a large number of nominations for highly qualified organizations from large and small around the state. The nominations come from numerous sources, including peers, professional acquaintances, and leaders in the community.
“We were truly delighted to be able to honor and recognize so many worthy Mississippi non-profits,” Mississippi Business Journal Publisher Alan Turner said, “We’ve felt for some time that these hard-working, dedicated agencies didn’t get the recognition they deserve, and we’re happy to be able to shine a light on their good works.”
The judging process was a joint undertaking between the Mississippi Business Journal and a number of respected professionals from the Mississippi business community. When the scoring and comments from all judges were assembled and tabulated, we were able to select the top nominees for recognition.
The Catch-A-Dream mission is to provide not only the opportunity to “catch an outdoor dream,” but also to provide spiritual encouragement that is often so badly needed by children and youth. It is this very message of Christian Hope, promised in Isaiah 40:31, that seeks to instill in these children and their families. Catch-A-Dream uses hunting and fishing as opportune tools to expose these children to the wonders of God that await them in the outdoors, away from the bleak and sterile world of medical facilities, treatments, and hospital gowns, but in the presence of the Creator who is the author of real Hope.
On each trip, these children and the family members who accompany them are surrounded by outdoors-mined people who understand that these children are often “…sick and tired of being sick and tired!” A designated and specially trained Catch-A-Dream Volunteer Host accompanies each family and together with the outfitters and local volunteers, facilities their dream experience. They love and nurture them through the strong personal relationships that inevitably are forged in the lodge, on the stream, or in the woods.
