We recently connected with Blake Starr and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Blake , thanks for joining us today. Do you manage your own social media?

WE manage our own social media. In recent months, we’ve brought on a few interns to help us keep up with the ever changing enhancements in the social media world. Our goal has always been to tell a story with the photos and videos received by medal recipients. By bringing on individuals with new and creative ideas, it has allowed us to reach a wider audience, especially on Tik Tok. We are fairly new to Tik Tok and are in the process of figuring out how best to reach more people who will share our mission of unconditional kindness. Our Instagram is in the process of being transformed by using bright colors and themed backgrounds that highlight our amazing heroes! We are utilizing the Instagram story feature more to further guide our audience to the daily posts. I truly enjoy having an in house team in place . It works well for us and allows for a comfortable space to create pure magic for our social media pages!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I became involved with We Finish Together in the fall of 2015 after reading a blog article about the organization. I quickly gained a passion for our mission of sharing strength and love through the giving of race medals. Soon after I was named it’s Executive Director. When our founder sadly passed away in 2019, I took over and made us a formal 501 3c. I am most proud of the growth WE have achieved over the past 3 years. We now fundraise to pay for shipping of medals and are able to send care packages around the world. WE have made deep connections with children fighting cancer not only in the UK, The Philippines, and Ireland. Our mission has always been to provide comfort and support to those who need it the most. We let others know they are not alone on their journeys and we will always be there to hold their hands, whether physically or in spirit. Our care goes beyond the giving of a medal with handwritten note of encouragement. We build meaningful relationships and friendships that last for years to come.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Covid presented a huge setback for our organization. WE were so used to delivering medals in person to places such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools for medically fragile children, and centers for veterans. When Covid shut everything down and not only could we not go to places in person, not were we comfortable sending out medals while not knowing a lot about how covid could spread to others. We had to get really creative! So, we began sending out medals virtually. We achieved this by sending pictures of medals with positive notes attached to them through social media, email, and texting. It was a way to still connect and feel close even though WE were all separated. It truly became such a source of comfort and connection for others, especially those who were far away from loved ones and friends.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn was not to take it personally when an organization or place did not respond to our offer of delivering/sending medals. I never took into account that everyone is busy and that they were not ignoring me. I had to swallow my pride many times and reach out more than once to offer kindness. I have now learned, it takes persistence and dedication to spread your mission. Also, I learned that’s it’s ok to stand up for yourself and your brand, Sometimes it’s simply finding a contact person to send an email or make a phone call to. I recall a few years back, it took me almost 6 months to get a good contact at a big hospital. I could not understand why they didn’t want to take us up on our offer. But it wasn’t that so much, as it was just having the patience in finding a direct contact person who could put things in motion. More often than not, big organizations appreciate it when you don’t give up on them!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wefinishtogether.org
• Instagram: @wefinishtogether
• Facebook: We Finish Together
• Other: TIk Tok We Finish Together