The title is a bit cliché, but when I read about Kyle Paxman’s story – I couldn’t help but feel for this woman and what she managed to do with her heartbreak. It seems that just six weeks before her wedding, a stranger appeared at her business office with multiple e-mail messages and supporting evidence that Ms. Paxman’s fiancé was having an affair with the stranger’s girlfriend.
It’s hardly surprising that the wedding was called off, but Ms. Paxman’s dress had already arrived and all the arrangements, pre-payments and more were done. There were more than a 180 guests invited and planning to attend the wedding and reception in Vermont from all over the country and from the Virgin Islands.
Instead of canceling the reception and losing all of the investment along with the personal pain she was feeling, Ms. Paxman instead decided to channel this awful time in her life into something positive. The reception is now a charity event celebrating strong women. They have invited 125 guests to attend the previously planned reception of cocktails and four-course dinner.
Some of the women invited were previously guests of the wedding, but not all of them. The reception event will enjoy the time together and Ms. Paxman hopes that they will then write checks to the charities she has chosen to receive the benefits of her canceled wedding plans, the first is the Vermont Children’s Aid Society and the second is CARE USA, an American affiliate of the international relief group.
Ms. Paxman is turning the lemons of betrayal and broken dreams into something more powerful and is in turn empowering others as well through the charity event and the fundraising. The inspiration came when Ms. Paxman and her mother were discussing what to do about the plans that they were already unable to cancel because it was so close to the wedding.
They had already decided to support the Vermont Children’s Aid Society, but they saw a commercial that showed hundreds of women from all over the world striding across a desert. The camera zoomed in to focus on four women, all of whom said “I am powerful.” The commercial ended with a narrator saying: She has the power to change her world. You have the power to help her.
Ms. Paxman was quoted in the article saying that she doesn’t know if her former fiancé has any idea of the plans, but that his parents do. They have not been invited to the event because it would be very painful to see them on the day she was supposed to marry their son. After the charity event, which Ms. Paxman hopes will help to raise funds for these organizations and empower the women who are coming as her guests, she and her mother will then head to Tahiti to enjoy the previously planned honeymoon as a vacation for the two of them.
Ms. Paxman is keeping as positive an attitude as she can, turning something awful into something meaningful. My hat is off to this lady and her mother. I can’t imagine the pain she must have felt, but I can certainly admire what she has and is doing. If you are interested in contributing to either CARE USA or the Vermont Children’s Society, just follow these links to their sites.
Have a great Saturday and remember, you can turn something awful into something meaningful as well.
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