Throughout this journey, we have found support from friends, families, and strangers, all of whom we are incredibly grateful for beyond words. Your help has been instrumental in helping us reach a point where the conclusion of the Authentic Abstraction First Responder Foundation is one filled with gratitude.

 

As a non-profit, our greatest achievement was not raising money but raising awareness. To add to the list of achievements, AAFRF was able to sponsor three local mental health providers from Placid Soul Counseling and Shepard Therapy Associates to attend specialized training to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, share our art with countless people who connected with our work, create a documentary, hold workshops and fundraisers, and help our first responder friends and their families in need. The humbling reality is that those who never heard of AAFRF will feel the ripple effect of our work, a testament to the impact we've had. Placid Soul Counseling has even set up a space tailored to treating the first responder community. See it here.

 

Though there is much more work to be done in the space of addressing and helping fight mental health challenges and stigma in the first responder community, we feel that AAFRF has done its part in extinguishing PTSD among first responders. Each of us involved could have never imagined that two firefighters creating artwork and poetry to cope with their worsening mental health symptoms would evolve into something so impactful.

 

The conclusion of AAFRF is bittersweet, but ultimately, the decision we felt needed to be made given the amount of daily work, support, and attention that AAFRF required to operate in a way we would continue to be proud of. The work of AAFRF is something that many of those close to it will continue in an unofficial, but equally impactful way.

 

AAFRF is a venture that we can all be immensely proud of. From those of you who have donated, attended an event, sent a message to a friend to check on them, liked a photo on Instagram, bought us a drink, aided us with our work, and even shot a documentary for us - you all have made this possible. 

 

Thank you to all of our friends, family, strangers, art connoisseurs, first responders, and those of you who put in the effort to make our little non-profit an incredible success.

 

Your generosity has made this possible. 

Your efforts have helped someone in need. 

 

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.