The Mirth Project

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 🎄
Well… not really. But it certainly is starting to FEEL like it around here!

The Mirth Project at Christmas program officially opens October 1st, which is when we begin sending links to our teens so they can create their Christmas wish lists.

And this year is a big one.

The Mirth Project at Christmas turns 10! 🎉🎅
Ten Christmases. Thousands of wishes. So many incredibly generous elves. And we may just have a few surprises up our Santa suits for year 10!

Want to adopt a teen’s wish list this year? There are three ways to get one:

🎄 Come to our Mirth Project List Open House!
October 24th & 25th
Come select your own wish list in the comfort of our home while enjoying delicious bites and seasonal drinks. Comment your email below if you’d like an invitation!

🎅 Play our traditional Facebook wish-list game!
We post the lists. You comment “ME!” or “MINE!” and claim yours. Lists start going up Sunday, November 1st at 7:30 p.m.!

❤️ Let us choose one for you!
Just ask us to email you a list, and we’ll happily pick a teen for you.
It’s going to be another memorable season.
Year 10! Here we go, elves! 🎄❤️

Last Monday night, five of our Scholar House Three students sat around my kitchen table with members of our Net committee.

We ate a ridiculous amount of Italian food, laughed, and talked about what they wanted people to understand before they walked into The Big Table.

And I kept thinking: this is exactly why we’re doing this.

We can sit in rooms and talk about former foster youth. We can study the statistics. We can build programs and debate solutions.
But, honestly, we (myself included) need to stop thinking about what they need and start asking them exactly what would be amazing if it existed!!!

On Tuesday morning, September 29, these young adults will be in the room with Mayor Andrew Ginther, community leaders, business leaders, nonprofit leaders and people who simply care about Columbus.

And they will get to tell us what it actually feels like to turn 18 without the safety net so many of us never even realized we had.

Then we’re going to ask one big question:

How can Columbus become the model city for what happens to a teen who turns 18 in foster care?

You don't need to work in foster care to belong in this conversation.

In fact, I think that's the point.

If you care about what kind of city Columbus becomes, I’d love to have you at The Big Table.

Tuesday, September 29
8:30–11:00 a.m.
The Junto Hotel
Breakfast is on us. The conversation matters.
Come take a seat at the table.
[https://givebutter.com/big-table-2026-02fngk](https://givebutter.com/big-table-2026-02fngk)

Volunteer Spotlight: Noelle Lagusch

Noelle brings incredible style, grace—and occasionally w**e—to just about everything she does with The Mirth Project. As a Scout & Cellar Consultant and we’d expect nothing less. 🍷

But what we love most is the heart she brings with her.

Noelle is part of our Christmas program and serves on both our fundraising committee and The Net committee.

She is passionate about supporting young people who have aged out of foster care, and she doesn’t just believe in our mission, she shares it. Again and again.

She shares our posts, talks about our work, introduces us to people who want to help, and has connected Mirth with so many wonderful people we might never have reached without her.

There are volunteers who show up, and then there are volunteers who help your circle grow.

Noelle does both.

We are so grateful for her generosity, her enthusiasm, her connections, and yes, the w**e. ❤️

Thank you, Noelle, for making Mirth bigger and better simply by being part of it.

We have some pretty exciting news to share. ❤️

The Mirth Project has been chosen as the nonprofit beneficiary of this year’s Lucy Depp Park Holiday Light Show!

Every holiday season, thousands of people drive through this incredible community light display and this year, donations collected through the show will help support The Net, our program for young adults who have aged out of foster care and are working toward college or career training.

For many of us, there has always been someone to call when life goes sideways. Someone who can help with groceries, an unexpected bill, a ride, a laptop for school or simply say, We’ve got you.

Too many young people aging out of foster care don’t have that person.

That’s why we built The Net.

We are incredibly grateful to the Lucy Depp Park community for choosing The Mirth Project and for believing in these young adults and what’s possible for their futures.

And we cannot wait to see those lights. ✨🎄

More details coming as we get closer to the holiday season!

Some people help once.

And some people just keep showing up.

Colette Mileti has been part of The Mirth Project since the very beginning. Ten years ago, she adopted a wishlist during our very first Mirth Project Christmas.

And she never stopped.

Over the years, Colette has adopted multiple teen wishlists at a time, and more recently, she’s added a Scholar House 3 resident to the mix.

Every year, she joins our Christmas in July fundraising committee. She and her husband sponsor the Lucky Dip game and then, because apparently sponsoring it isn’t quite enough for Colette, she shows up with items for the game too.

She shares Mirth with her circle. She makes introductions. She helps when help is needed. She is kind without needing credit for being kind.

Colette is grace and goodness and generosity in human form.

There’s something incredibly powerful about someone believing in your work at the beginning. But there’s something even more powerful about them still standing beside you ten years later.

Colette, thank you for saying yes that very first year and for continuing to say yes ever since.

The Mirth Project is better because you are part of it. ❤️

She’s an art therapy student with a lot of ideas and some pretty big goals for her future.

She wants to use art to help people feel better much like she uses it in her own life.

She’s also incredibly resourceful.

She navigates some health challenges, finds programs she qualifies for, tracks down resources and figures out how to piece together what she needs to stay in school.

This semester, she secured funding for her books through Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities.

Except the money hasn’t come.

She’s been in class for a couple of weeks now.
And class doesn’t wait.

Yesterday she reached out and asked if there was any way we could help her get her books while she waits for the funding.

Because of the generosity of our donors, we got to say yes.

Not yes, we can get it to you next week.
Not yes, fill out another form.
Yes. Let us Zelle you the money.

Agility is one of our five core values at The Mirth Project, and this is exactly why.

She had already done everything she was supposed to do. She found the resource. She secured the funding. She advocated for herself.

She just needed someone to close the gap.

And that is part of what we are building with The Net.

Our capital campaign isn't only about creating programs. It's about building the capacity to respond when a young person who is working incredibly hard encounters a gap that could knock them off course.

Books. Transportation. Technology. Food. The things that don't always look like emergencies — until you don't have them.
We want to be able to say yes, right when yes matters most.
Because the future art therapist who will someday help other people feel better shouldn't lose ground today because her textbook funding is stuck somewhere in a system.

That's what your investment in The Net makes possible.

If you would like to be part of the solution please donate here.
https://givebutter.com/ywlf6D