One Year. Twenty-Two Families. What Your Support Built.
When the first six Wonder Makers walked into the Lodge space at Peachtree Church in September 2024, none of us knew exactly what was being started. One year later, the picture is coming into focus.
I want to stop and say what has actually happened. Because in the work of building something new, it is easy to keep moving toward the next milestone without pausing to name the one you just cleared. We cleared a significant one.
Wonderfully Made launched in September 2024 with six Wonder Makers, a donated space, and a renovated commercial kitchen. Kitty had spent nearly two years preparing for this moment — visiting programs, gathering families, building the case — and I had spent that same time building the systems that would hold the vision once it launched. In September, the doors opened.
One year later: 22 families. Two cohorts. A permanent bakery. CBS News Atlanta. 11 Alive. Good Day Atlanta. Atlanta Magazine. The Rough Draft. Coverage that brought people to the website, to the volunteer page, to the order form, to the donate button. Every piece of press was confirmation that the need was real and the response was visible.
Wonder Makers have moved into employment. Lele works at Crumbl Cookie and runs her own home bakery. Maya works at Steeple Cafe. Julia and Troy work at Publix. The skills built inside this room are transferring to the world outside it.
A bakery externship program launched, offering culinary students real kitchen training in a mission-driven, inclusive environment.
The chapters model is in active development — a codified, replicable framework that will allow any church in any city to launch their own Wonderfully Made community.
“There are so many adults with intellectual disabilities, and their families would really love to have a place to belong.”
That is the work ahead. But it is also a description of the work already done. Twenty-two families who had a place to belong this year that they did not have before. Twenty-two families who exhaled.
None of that happened without donors. The renovation required fundraising. The sliding-scale tuition structure requires the gap between program revenue and program cost to be covered by people who believe this work matters.
If you have given to Wonderfully Made, you are in the room every Tuesday. You are in Teon’s kitchen and Ian’s birthday celebrations and Troy’s Sunday morning pew-cleaning. You are in the lives of 22 families who count on this program to give their adults a Tuesday worth waking up for.
One year down. A movement ahead.
We are raising $1.5 million over three years to grow the brand, develop church chapter resources, and provide coaching for leaders ready to replicate this model. The first year showed us what was possible. Will you help us build what comes next?
Invest in the next year
Wonderfully Made is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a proven model, a growing community, and a clear vision for what belonging can look like at scale. Give at wonderfullymadecommunity.org and be part of year two.