‘Tis the Season to Expect A Miracle

by Duane Sherman

Carolyn Gable wasn’t sure how many Christmas presents were going to be under the tree in 1982. “I was recently single and had lost my job as a waitress that year when the roof of the restaurant blew off during a storm. This had turned out to be a tough year for me and my two boys.” With the rent due and “drawers full of bills” she was still able to scrape a few gifts together for Ryan and Seth, age eight and three. “It wasn’t much but I knew if I didn’t get them anything, it would be really hard on them. Visa was going to have to wait.”


When the waitress job blew away, she hit the streets looking for work. “I landed a temp position answering phones for a trucking company. I had no college and my family couldn’t help, so this was the best I could do.” Times were still hard, but Carolyn had faith things would get better. “I knew I could just go through this time, or I could grow through it. I made a choice to grow.”

Soon a position in sales opened up and she begged management for a chance at it. Reluctantly, they gave it to her. Instantly successful, she was soon outpacing the veteran salesmen. “My days waitressing taught me how to take care of people, to listen to what they really needed.” Carolyn built on this success and in 1989 launched out on her own business. In the basement of her home she started New Age Transportation, Distribution and Warehousing (www.newagetransportation.com), now a $15 million company with 42 employees.

It took a decade of hard work before New Age landed their first big account, AOL Time Warner, but after that the business began to take off. “When all this started to happen, I had a realization of just how good God had been to me.” Carolyn decided she would start a foundation to help single working parents like herself give the “little things” that make a “big difference” in the lives of children. “Lots of people tried to talk me out of it, saying it would be cumbersome and a lot of paperwork and so on.” But, Carolyn knew this was a calling and in 2001 the Expect A Miracle Foundation was born.

Since then the foundation has helped scores of families each year. Children that couldn’t afford to go to their 6th grade camping trip didn’t have to feel they were less than their peers. The foundation paid for the trip and bought them winter coats and sleeping bags to stay warm. Another family got a special gift that made their summer one to remember. “Thank you for buying us a pass to our local pool, wrote a single mom, ‘I would not have had much to offer the boys this summer without it.” Christmas presents were bought in December; little league mitts provided for in May, school supplies were proudly carried to class in August and in the fall a ballerina took her first lesson.

“It’s an incredible joy to be able to help these families, especially at Christmas. It’s a special time that children remember for the rest of their lives,” says Gable, “I’d encourage people to adopt a family they know who is struggling.” She says sometimes it’s hard for struggling single parents to accept help. “In that case make it anonymous. Put a card with a cash gift or gift certificate in their mailbox or under their door, write an encouraging message on it and say “Soccer cleats for Jimmy…or anything else he needs this year.”

You might not know a family in this situation. If you’d still like to help, you can donate to the Expect A Miracle Foundation. To make a donation, or if you are a single working parent who could use a little help this year, please contact The Expect A Miracle Foundation at (847) 545-1157, or info@expectamiracle.org. Go to www.expectamiraclefoundation.org for more information.