Interview of Molly Babyak and Heidi Serena

Sarah: Alright, hi guys! Thank you for joining me on this interview.

Heidi: Hi Sarah

Sarah: So, to start off can you both introduce yourselves and say what your position is with Shorewood HUGS.

Heidi: Sure, I'm Heidi Serena and I am currently the chairman of the executive board and I am also one of the cofounders.

Molly: And I am Molly Babyak and I am the immediate past president of Shorewood HUGS.

Sarah: Perfect, thank you. So, Heidi I know you said you are one of the founders. Can you share how you and the founders thought to start Shorewood HUGS, when it began, and what the name stands for? Just all of the history.

Heidi: Sure. It really began in kind of an interesting way. I wish I could take credit for where it was right now, that that was our original idea, but it wasn't. Originally, I was an elementary school teacher when I was younger, and when my kids got a little older I wanted to do something to give back to the community, and I wanted to start a safety town project for preschoolers and connect with the schools. I went to four of my friends and I'm like "What do you think? Do you want to do something to give back?" And they were like "Sure, we're in." So that's how HUGS originally got formed and that we co-founded it. The name, oddly enough, but if people know me, I've kind of got a creative side of me. I was giving my kids a ride home from school one day and there was a marquee that said "Have you hugged your kids?" I saw that word hug and it just talked to me. I thought, what a cute name that would be for an organization; call it hugs. And we, the co-founders, sat down one night and we decided that we would name it HUGS, standing for Helping You Get Started.

Sarah: I love it! Molly, how did you originally hear about HUGS and what made you want to get involved with it?

Molly: So, back in 2009 when my children were younger, I had my own at-home business and I was always looking at different ways to get involved in the community and I started seeing these advertisements for a chocolate ball. I thought "Oh, I wonder what that is. That sounds really interesting and who doesn't love chocolate?" So, I started reaching out through our website and they were really busy getting ready for the big event, the Chocolate Ball. I was able to offer a donation from my business, so I was super excited about that, but I really wanted to get involved. I have always been involved in volunteering, that's actually how I met my husband and so I really wanted to become more involved in the community and I asked if I could get involved. I attended my first meeting in March in 2010, which was the first meeting after their big fundraiser, the Chocolate Ball and the rest is history.

Sarah: Thank you. So, the main idea of HUGS is to grant wishes to people in need in the community. With that being said, what have been your favorite wishes that you've granted?

Heidi: So with mine, there's one that stands out to me and it was a wish for a 40-year-old man who had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. His wish was to skydive and we were able to fulfill that wish for him. Our wishes are very broad, and I always want to make sure people understand we are not Make A Wish, we don't send people to Disney, or these extravagant things. We call them smaller wishes. They are mainly five hundred dollars or less, but they are to brighten someone's day, that's how we say it.

Molly: So, I have a couple. The first one, actually this was an idea that you had brought to us, Sarah, when you were back in middle school. It was the 400th wish. You had been watching all the different YouTube videos about paying it forward, and so you actually came to a meeting and presented the idea to the Board of Directors, and asked for permission, or made the suggestion, "Could we do a paying it forward wish for the 400th wish?" And they thought it was great, so we decided to do it. The premise was that, it was during the holiday season, and we were given five hundred dollars to do the wish and we could go out into different grocery stores, like WalMart and things like that in our community, and just randomly pick someone to do something special for. So, Sarah and some of the little daughters of some of our HUGS members went along with it and we actually got our local newspaper involved, so we have really fun pictures and things. The feeling of being able to walk up to a stranger and just do something totally kind was really amazing. It was great. I think also, Heidi I'm sure you would agree, that our 1000th wish, it was such a milestone. There was so much thought and it was actually a past wish recipient that approached us about "Would it be possible to give away a car to a mom in need that didn't have a reliable car?" So, through a lot of work and Heidi, you were very involved in making this possible, we actually gave a used car to a mom in need. We partnered with a local business to make that happen and there were several steps that had to take place in order for it to happen. We had to do a special fundraiser selling raffle tickets and going out into the community and just inviting our friends and neighbors to come out and purchase raffle tickets from us. In the end, we were able to raise enough money to purchase a really nice, fairly new, used car. We had to then have a selection process of finding a mom that needed it. Then it came together with meeting at the car dealership and all of our members were there. I always say a "sea of red"; our signature colors are red and white, so we had everybody in the specially themed t-shirts and we had balloons and a special banner for everyone to sign. So, those are the two favorites. Of course a lot of our wishes are very sad, someone's going through something unimaginable, but both of those were more uplifting and something that we were really able to do that made an impact in the community, so it was really great.

Heidi: Can I say one more? Because Molly sparked me when she was talking about those fabulous wishes.

Sarah: Yes, for sure.

Heidi: Just to show the broadness of our wishes, there was a tornado in our area and I went with another HUGS member to fulfill the wish and I'll never forget pulling up to the subdivision and the front of her house was gone. And upstairs, the back rooms were in the front and her wish was for a lift chair, and here at the top floor, and like I said, there's just air around it, the lift chair was upside down. It was so emotional because the woman had cancer. I just had to throw that one in to show the broad spectrum of what we do.

Sarah: Yes, thank you for sharing. I know I always feel super special getting to deliver wishes sometimes with my mom and the other ladies in HUGS. It just feels really good to give back to the community. Aside from delivering wishes, what has been your most rewarding experience?

Heidi: So for me, I don't really have a most rewarding experience. When these people, that are going through some of the hardest experiences of their life, and they let you in, like we're just strangers, and they're letting us in and they are telling us what they've been through. To me, that is the most rewarding experience to be a part of their lives when they're going through these horrific things or sad times, that they're letting us in. It's just a really true privilege to me to be a part of that and that's what my most rewarding experience is about HUGS.

Molly: So, I 100% agree. Of course, all of us have received awards along the way, which is always such a nice thing. We've been honored by so many different groups in our community, but it's not about the awards. It's really about the way that you feel when you know you've done a job well done. When you have certain members of the community reach out to you and they want to support you. Heidi, one of the times when we changed the Chocolate Ball location and I'll never forget the feeling of we didn't know if people would follow us to a new location and in a snowstorm where we had eight inches of snow on the ground and we're running around trying to get everything done and we turn around and there's a room full of people. Those are the moments when you know we mean something to the community and that our efforts matter. It's all pretty remarkable. I do have to say, in the beginning, I did not introduce myself as sponsoring Junior HUGS, which is what Sarah has been involved in for so many years. But the other thing that I have really enjoyed is being a part of the Junior HUGS program and helping the next generation of young leaders or young volunteers understand the importance of giving back to the community. That's what it's all about, getting us all on the same page and same team.

Sarah: I just want to chime in and share my most rewarding experience. It was definitely restarting the Junior HUGS program. It started out with four of us and it grew to over thirty, and then when I graduated high school I was able to pass it down to my younger sister, Michelle. Her and my mom, Molly, still do tons of service projects together, so I just like being able to keep up with it and see what they're up to even while I'm away at college.

Heidi: Well, I'm going to chime in on that too. Your mom is just unbelievable what she did with Junior HUGS. We were all in awe, because really what it's about, Sarah, is giving you an experience that you all understood what it was like to give back, and she and Crystil helped too, another lady, but your mom was so instrumental. Everyone was in awe, we were so happy you girls really got to be a part of it and that, I'm sure, shaped who you are and where you are right now, Sarah. So, kudos to Mom.

Sarah: Yes, for sure. What has been the most challenging experience and how did you guys continue to serve the community during the pandemic?

Heidi: Well, I'll start with the first one for the challenging. What's been most challenging for me is that we can't help everyone. As much as we would like to, we just can't. And what we do is we service, in our bylaws we say that we will help twenty miles from the perimeter of Shorewood. I take my position as co-founder very seriously and HUGS is my baby, and so one of my jobs is to just make sure that we stick with our bylaws and we stay true to it. That's really hard sometimes because you get tugged at your heart strings for this, but HUGS is very respected in our community, and I believe one of the reasons why we're so respected is because the donors know exactly where their money is going and so, we're staying true to that. And then the second part about how did we serve the community, that is one hundred thousand times your mom, because if it wasn't for her and what she did for the community during the pandemic was, like I said, Molly you can talk about that.

Molly: Of course, COVID presented a challenge for all of us worldwide, not just in Shorewood, Illinois. We didn't know how we would be able to meet with each other. We didn't know how we would be able to do wishes. Because of COVID, we had to cancel some of our events. It was definitely a challenge. What we did do, started out actually with a suggestion from the founders, you guys wanted to give meals to some of the staff members at local hospitals. We took that idea and we kind of ran with it. We looked at the different hospitals that are right here within our twenty mile radius and we put them on a rotating schedule. So, every week we had meals delivered from local restaurants to the different hospitals that serve our community. We also extended that out into some of the local prompt cares, and places they had medical/essential workers at. Then we came up with the idea that one of the things at our Chocolate Ball, which is our main fundraiser every year, we have about ten to twelve different restaurants and bakeries and things like that, that donate food, pieces of chocolate, and chocolate desserts and creations to us. So, we decided let's support those businesses as much as possible. We started putting them into the rotation so that we could send out cupcakes or TCBY yogurt or different things to even grocery store workers and pharmacists and things like that, so that people in the community that were essential workers, we were supporting. We got our Junior HUGS involved. We got them to make cards and colorings and things like that that we sent. We would even walk into the local Jewel grocery store, and there were cards on the windows from our Junior HUGS members, and that was so cool. Then, we thought about the teachers. The teachers had been sent home and the students were home and they never really got to say goodbye. We did a special thing on Facebook, we had members of the community send us names and addresses of their favorite teachers and little quotes and things. Sitting at our dining room table and Sarah, you were a part of this, we made cards, and got five dollar gift cards to Dunkin' Donuts, and addressed them, and sent them out. Just little touches, we did that for nurses too, we did Nurses Appreciation during that May of 2020. Same idea, just nominating a nurse or medical professional and we sent out over one hundred cards for each one of those. It was just keeping everything going. We had zoom meetings with our members and got their input as much as possible. When it came time for Christmas time, every year we have our Christmas party. Well, obviously we couldn't have one together in 2020, so we did little goodie bags that we dropped on all of our members' porches. We are famous for our chocolate martinis, so we made the little makings of chocolate martinis and put them in their goodie bags. Just trying to do things that kept our organization going and moving forward and supporting the community anyway that we possibly could. Because then the problem is not only are we doing things for the community, but how are we going to continue to fund everything, so we wound up having some different special things, because we couldn't have our big fundraiser. We sold teddy bears and did porch drop offs. We wound up starting our wishes program again and did it on a porch delivery. We couldn't go and give someone a hug, but we could drop off things that they needed. I mean the list goes on and on, but we just kept on doing what we could do to make an impact. Always making an impact.

Sarah: Awesome. Yeah, I remember doing a lot of those little projects while we were locked up in the house and had nothing else to do. It felt good to be doing something, but also to know we were making a difference doing it. So, in this class, global leadership studies, we are learning all about leadership and different important leaders in history. What does leadership mean to you and aside from HUGS, what other ways are you both involved in the community?

Heidi: To me, leadership means inspiring others to help reach the goals we've set by the organization. A leader guides and they don't dictate. There's so many ideas that come from the group, you want that wide range of ideas that come. I also feel like a good leader will leave something behind that they were passionate about to better the organization. Something else I've learned is, I really believe over the years, a good leader leaves the organization a little better than it was. They also let that new leader that comes in, they make it easy for them. If that new leader shines, I feel like you know you've done a good job because you want that new leader to be able to come into the organization. Do you want me to say the other part of it too? How I help in other ways?

Sarah: Yeah, you can both answer both parts.

Heidi: So other ways I help, my paying job is I work for Habitat for Humanity. It's another nonprofit organization and our mission is to provide affordable housing to lower-income families in Will County. So, I work in a job that does give back and it makes you feel really good that you are raising money while you are actually getting paid for it. Also, I think with HUGS we are so involved in the community. Our area is so philanthropic, I just can't even tell you. I can't think of another area, maybe there are more, but we have these relationships we have built with other nonprofits in the area and we are helping them through the years. I have been involved with Team Make a Difference, you know Audra, and they do home makeovers and I have been very involved with her over the past several years. One was for a family that lost their mom and dad and we had to help get that house prepared. Another was for a husband who lost his wife and they had a special needs daughter. I am also currently, something I have been passionate about, I want to get involved in the child trafficking in our area, so I did reach out, actually the last couple of weeks, to see how I can become more involved with that.

Sarah: Thank you.

Molly: So, I feel like a leader is about setting a good example. I am very much a strong proponent of leading by example. Also, to me it's all about having a can-do attitude. I'm always the person that's looking for a reason why we can do it, not a reason why not to do it. Sometimes people don't like me for that because I probably overextend myself and that's probably one of my biggest flaws, but in the end it usually always works out. I feel like if there's a way or a reason to do it, I'm going to find that way and that reason to do it. I just feel like supporting the members and getting them to be excited and passionate about doing all those things, for me, that's what it's been all about. Just trying to continually encourage people, thank people. When I was leading meetings I was always about pointing out that someone else did this, like "Thank you Heidi for going to this event on behalf of Shorewood HUGS" or just continuing to make everyone in our organization feel good about their level of commitment to our organization. As far as other things that I'm involved in, I said earlier I have a long history of being a volunteer. When my kids were littler, I worked very hard every year with our Showcase of the Arts through Troy elementary school and scheduled different artists and singers and musicians and different people to come in and teach the kids about art and ways that kids could get involved in the arts. I volunteered for about four or five years with the Troy Foundation, which was raising money for our Troy school district. When the girls were in high school, I was very involved in the Minooka Choir Boosters. I was the president of that organization and raised over one hundred thousand dollars to help the kids get to England, which was amazing. Currently, I did just step down as the HUGS president, but I just was appointed to be on the Council of Working Women through the Joliet Chamber. So, I've been getting involved with their group and helping to plan their events, in which they raise money to be able to give out scholarships to women that are getting back into the workforce. It's just so wonderful, honestly I started out when I was a little kid, my family had nothing, and I think that's been a big motivator for me being involved, is just to be able to give back. I'm able to do it, I want to do it, I want to make a difference in people's lives, and so that's what I try to do. I try to help out.

Sarah: Thank you for sharing. We will do one more question, so what advice do you have for college students that want to be more involved in their community?

Heidi: Okay, so I have a lot to say with this, Sarah. So one, find something that you are passionate about and find a place to sign up to be a volunteer. So, whatever you are passionate about, there's probably some place, there's probably some organization that might support that. But, find an organization that really supports the students coming in because you should be able to really get a good feel of what that's about. They should be able to let you really go into the thick of things. Two, don't think that any idea is too crazy or out of your reach. Don't do that. Look at me. I started something that turned totally into something else. You know something else that's different, I didn't get involved really in this until I was close to fifty years old. I mean, look at you kids, and my children as well. You've watched your mom. My kids have watched me. I'm really proud that you can give back at such a young age like that. But like I said, don't think anything is out of your reach. Just find a way or start one yourself. Also, it really inspires you when you start working with all these different groups, so like I said, get involved and then make it what you want it to be.

Molly: Yeah I was going to say the same thing. Find something that you're passionate about. I'm sure, actually I know from you, Sarah, that Nashville has seventy-something nonprofit organizations, I'm sure there's one out there for every one of you. I mean, there's tons of ways to get involved. Be brave. Take a friend. Do whatever it is to make it happen. It's so important to give back to the community. We've all been blessed with so much, finding a way to get involved not only makes you feel good, but obviously the whole goal is just to make a difference and to help someone else. Just do it, find that thing. I'm sure there's a Habitat down in Nashville, people can get involved with a build. I know that's a fun thing that we just did together this summer, was go out and help frame a house for Habitat and that was super awesome. There's just so many ways and it really shapes who you are. I will say with HUGS, it has completely shaped who I am. I started with the group, I was late thirties, and it's definitely had an impact on everything. It's had an impact on our family. It's had an impact on the jobs that I've gotten. It's had an impact on my ability to network and communicate with different people in our community. It's remarkable. It can be just little things, but everything adds up to make something big.

Sarah: Yeah, thank you, I think that's really good advice. We had a speaker at one of our classes earlier this semester, and she works at a nonprofit in Nashville, and she told us a similar thing. She said to find what sets your heart on fire and chase after it. So that's just something that's been in the back of my head as I've been trying to think about what I want to do in the future.

Heidi: Sarah, may I add one more thing?

Sarah: Yes

Heidi: To go off what Molly said, you know, you go into this when you want to give back and help people. But, I'm telling you, we've said many times, we think we've gotten probably more out of it sometimes. Like it affects us as much as the people you're helping, you know that feeling of giving back. With us, it's not only, as Molly said, you are making these relationships with the community, but HUGS is like a second family. We have had so many things, wonderful and sad, that have happened over the years, and we are this family, this group that is there for each other, a good support group. So, giving back is huge. It's not just helping those people, but it's helping your immediate family that you've made too.

Sarah: That's all of the questions that I have for our interview today. Thank you for joining me and I just want to say Shorewood HUGS is super special to me because it is how I started to get involved with community service. It's kind of shaped my path and possibly I want to start a nonprofit of my own in the future. So, thank you for joining and I am excited to share your guys' stories with my class.

Heidi: You're quite welcome. Good luck Sarah.

Sarah: Thank you.

Molly: Thanks, Sarah. It means a lot that you chose HUGS to do for your class, so thank you so much.