Who says nothing happens in Maine except tourism in the summer!

At several meetings in Portland, SCORE-whose national goal is to help 1 million clients by 2020-and I worked hard to grow one small non-profit. Present was a mentor from the for-profit world, one from the non-profit one, myself, and, amongst the three of us, S3 morphed into CSIR.

In our productive environment, ideas spouted at an unusual steady pace; we chose what we deemed most beneficial and productive.

We looked at my story. What was the main drawback for me from fifty years of being severely shy? Social isolation. What prevented me from having a career? Social isolation. What kept me from having friends? Social isolation. What shaped my marriage and my parenting? More than anything else, social isolation. What was the biggest source of pain for me? Social isolation.

My mentors soon realized we could help everyone who suffered from social isolation, not just the severely shy: the same program that would help one type overcome social isolation, would help all kinds of socially isolated people pull out of it.

The modern world brings loneliness to millions of Americans. ABC recently aired a report about a student eating alone in the school cafeteria. There may be something about eating…..perhaps because you normally have good feelings while doing it….that makes the act of doing it alone one of the most painful an isolated person can experience.

Kids will be kids, we produced them, we were them once and we know all about them. Under peer pressure, they will not usually accept the one-that’s-different and they probably won’t change. CSIR’s mission is to provide relief to socially isolated children and youth so they can unite with their peers.