Our family has closely been monitoring the rising cases of COVID-19 in the state of Maryland, and in particular, Carroll County. Our entire mission is to be a local farm with a global impact that serves the most vulnerable people. After much discussion, prayer, and consulting leaders in the community, we feel the moral responsibility to cancel our December 5th Christmas Around The World Event to protect the health of our community, including the vulnerable.
From our understanding, the current restrictions do not prevent us from hosting an outdoor gathering, however, our family includes professionals in healthcare, education, ministry, child protection, media, and farming, so we have a broad perspective of the impact that this pandemic has caused, and do not want to contribute to any further spread of this disease.
We are extremely disappointed and want to express our gratitude to Taneytown Dance Studio, One Village Coffee, Frank & Stein Food Cart, ChildFund, and GLBAL media for their hard work and preparation that already went in to dreaming up this event.
We hope that you respect our decision and trust that whenever we produce an event on our farm, that it will be done with excellence and safety, always.
The greatest fear in cancelling this event is the impact that it will have on vulnerable children around the world that would have benefitted from your donations to provide things like clean water, a classroom, nutritious food, job training, healthcare, and protection through ChildFund. As a family, we are going to pull our finances together and provide a matching grant (up to $2250) to fund a $4,500 classroom in Africa. If you are interested and able to give towards that, please email Jeremy at jwillet@childfund.org or visit https://www.facebook.com/donate/1444042579320262/ for the matching donation link.
Until we can meet again,
Jeremy, Kathleen, Justin, Nicole, Jesse, Whitney, and the entire Willet Family