Happy Holidays, Everyone!!
With Thanksgiving over and Christmas quickly approaching, I couldn’t help but reflect on how truly thankful I am for everything that has led JRamosWorks and me to where we are today. Your tremendous support has been instrumental in not only supporting me, but all the charitable organizations that we have fundraised for. With everything that we have been able to do together, J. Ramos has been “working” to lay down the groundwork to do more in 2022. In this, I am incredibly excited that we have started a new charitable organization that is now officially registered in the state of California called, the J.Ramos Works Foundation (JRamosWorks Foundation).
With this new charitable organization, we’ll be able to work more effectively towards realizing our mission to change lives, make a difference, and leave the world in a better place. Through this, we will continue to create and support programs to advance health, fitness, and overall wellness in our local and global communities, and to assist other charities with similar interests.
What does it mean for you? Well, once we are approved for our 501c3 status (expected in early 2022), it will mean that tips from generous supporters such as you will be considered donations. That means that you can get tax write offs while supporting our live-streaming fitness programs and more!
In order to look forward to the new charitable organization, it is necessary to look back at what we have collectively accomplished to date. You’ve been with me on this journey where we’ve been able to:
Help improve the health and fitness of as many people as possible by continuing to deliver quality fitness classes both live-streamed and virtually—providing access to fitness options 24 x 7 continually through this year and throughout a pandemic;
Continue delivering these classes for free in order to make them accessible to as many people as possible no matter their financial situation—with my own existence supported purely by tips from supporters like you;
Expand my offering of classes to you from just U-Jam Fitness to include JRamosWorks Total BodyWork and Turbo Kick;
Increase subscriptions to my JRamosWorks YouTube channel to over 1600 subscribers (and still growing!) today;
Raise almost $7,000 in support of noteworthy charitable organizations via donations through JRamosWorks efforts, collaborations, events and my Apparel for a Cause program which donates 10-50% of all sales to charitable organizations such as, The American Heart Association, Meals on Wheels, Keep A Breast, the ALS Association, Mental Health America, and The Challenged Athletes Foundation to name a few—with over $15,000 raised in donations over the years for breast cancer awareness alone;
Launched JRamosWorks.com as a convenient online source for info on JRamosWork fitness classes, apparel, events, and photography services;
And the list goes on...
What’s fascinating about this journey is that I’ve reached the same age that my brother, James, was also interested in being involved in non-profit, charitable organizations. After many years in music education and piano performance, he made the decision that he wanted to be involved in the management of nonprofits. I remember him talking to me about his decision, and we both agreed that even though he was an incredibly smart and talented individual, he just did not have any credibility for organizational management. He immediately started working on his masters degree in non-profit organization management, but he never had the chance to fulfill his dream when he was diagnosed with brain cancer and passed away.
One of the reasons why the name J. Ramos Works (JRamosWorks) exists is to carry on the name of my brother along with me. This connection between myself and my brother feels more substantial in the creation of the non-profit, charitable organization, the J. Ramos Works Foundation (JRamosWorks Foundation). While we both had a mentality of service in our respective fields, it wasn’t until now that one of us has fully gone in to start a non-profit organization. With everything that we’ve done together in the last year, I know that this is not only the right thing to do, but the best path to increase our potential and capabilities. United we have made a huge difference this last year, and we’ve now set the foundation to do more for next year.
HOW TO SUPPORT
Please know that your support through your participation and through your generosity has not only been instrumental in my survival—especially this hard year of the pandemic—it has also made a difference to multiple charities, and it has laid the groundwork to create the JRamosWorks Foundation. With that said, there are costs associated to starting up a new organization, and your support is needed even more now.
We currently have a few ways to support right now:
Send in a tip at www.jramosworks.com/tipjar
Share this post with friends and family.
Shop apparel at www.jramosworks.com/shop (currently a holiday sale and all profits will be used to support the new foundation)
Beyond that, I’m thankful for each and every one of you who have given of yourself in spirit and monetarily in support of me. Together, let’s continue to change lives, make a difference, and leave this world in a better place.