I want to take a minute to talk about Mirabella, because if I’m going to ask people to support her, it matters to me that I do it honestly and thoughtfully.

When we were living in rural Indiana, Mirabella won an essay contest through Girls Inc. At the time, I didn’t fully grasp how meaningful that opportunity would become. It allowed her to travel to Washington, D.C., where she spent time shadowing a congresswoman. What I thought was simply a great experience turned out to be a turning point. From that moment on, something shifted. She became self-driven in a way that didn’t need reminders, and D.C. quietly claimed a piece of her heart.

Girls Inc. gave her that first glimpse — not just of government, but of possibility — and it stayed with her.

Since then, she’s stayed deeply involved in the world around her. At the University of Delaware, she’s part of the Student Government Association and serves on the Senate Faculty Affairs committee. She worked as an intern with Wilmington City Council, and she even took a semester off of school to work on a gubernatorial campaign at the state level. She’s also volunteered at the food bank — and what always stays with me is that she noticed the same vegetarian man coming in each week and made a point to set food aside so he’d have something he could eat. No one asked her to do that. She just paid attention.

I’ve raised my kids as a single mother while putting myself through undergrad and law school, and that’s not an easy thing for a child to grow up alongside. There are sacrifices they feel before they have language for them. Mirabella has had to be resilient in ways people don’t always see, but it’s never changed who she is. It hasn’t made her cynical or hardened. If anything, it’s made her more thoughtful about the future and more considerate of the people around her.

She has been one of the greatest joys of my life. And truly, she gives me real hope — not in an abstract way, but in a grounded, everyday way — for what comes next.

If you believe in supporting young people who show up with care, effort, and integrity, thank you for being part of her journey.

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“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

— African proverb