Brenda Andrus

I attribute my success to my faith and the second chance at life that God gave me. When I was 40 years old, doctors gave up on me, but I promised God that if He gave me a second chance, I would give back, and I've been doing it ever since. Sometimes I don't even know where my money's coming from, but I continue to give all the praise to God and Jesus. I also credit my sisters for joining me in this vision - one is a nurse in the health field, another has her own academy with 100 students working with children, and another retired from service. We're all outspoken, not shy, and we just want to share our knowledge. My years of public service with the City of Lafayette prepared me too, because I was always active in the community and not afraid to be in the public eye, on TV, or on the radio. All the organizations I was in before helped me along the way.

The best advice I received came from a man who helped us establish our nonprofit status. He told me he would always be there for us 24-7, to just call him if we needed anything. He shared his knowledge, his contacts, phone numbers, and internet information freely. He showed us what to do on the state level and city level with papers and who to contact. What really stuck with me was his willingness to share everything he knew. A lot of people don't share their contacts, but he did, and that taught me an important lesson: share your knowledge, don't die with it. There's somebody that needs you. I've taken that to heart and now I tell everyone to be kind to people and respect people, because you never know when you need them.

I would say, get with your city and see if they have a building to host meetings, even if it's just for an hour. Start doing posts on your social media pages, make flyers telling people about your cause, welcome people, let them know where it's at and what time. Give out your phone number and email address, and have it open 24 hours, because people will reach out that you don't even know. They'll say things like, 'I just moved here, I understand there's a local group.' Share that information openly, openly, and be willing to talk 24 hours. Make sure you return calls - we return every call. It's a lot of mental health work, and people are dealing with so much. Sometimes when people call, you can just listen. When people call and you listen to them, that's all they ask for. And remember, the people who have the illness know more than us because they know the medicine they're taking and the doctors they see, so when they share their experience, you learn from them too. Get them to become advocates also, even if they never wanted to talk about it before or go on TV. You can help them open up.

The biggest opportunity I see is growth - our membership is growing because more people are joining the support group and we're bringing in their families to come learn. One of the main challenges is that people don't understand lupus because you don't have to look sick to be sick. We hear stories where children don't understand their parents, or parents think their kids are faking it, being lazy, or don't want to work. So we invite the families to our meetings so they can hear the stories from other people, not just their loved ones. When we have our galas and people share their stories in front of hundreds of people, the children finally understand and say things like, 'Oh mom, I know you were sick, but I didn't know you were really, really sick.' Education is a major part of preventing guilt and misunderstanding. Another challenge is learning how to do grant writing - we're still learning about grants and want to move to the next level of getting grants so we can cover costs like entertainment, catering, and event space for our big galas. We've been getting help from local organizations and sponsors for the last five years, but we want to expand that support.

The most important values to me are having a heart and empathy for everyone that's suffering. Being kind is essential. Respect is crucial too, especially because people don't look sick but they are sick - you don't have to look sick to be sick. I also deeply value service to others. All my organizations are about serving - feeding the homeless, helping the elderly. My faith is central to everything I do. After God gave me a second chance at life when doctors gave up on me at 40, I promised I would give back, and I've been doing it ever since. I give all the praise to God and Jesus for allowing me to continue this work. Sharing knowledge is another core value - I believe you should share your knowledge and not die with it, because somebody needs you. And finally, being kind to people and respecting people matters, because you never know when you need them.