Thank you for joining us for episode 426 of Live Happy Now.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week we're introducing a new occasional series called Happy Activists,

where I sit down with someone who is doing amazing things to make our world a little bit happier.

Our very first happy activist is Don McMullen,

a freelance writer and editor whose life changed when she met a woman who had fled the Democratic

Republic of Congo. As she learned more about the plight of girls and young women in the Congo,

Dawn was compelled to act, and as you're about to learn, she has become part of a nonprofit organization

called Congo Restoration that has already changed hundreds of families and continues to grow.

Let's listen as Dawn tells us how giving back to others has given her a greater sense of purpose.

Well, Don, thank you for joining me as our first happy activist episode on Live

Happy Now. Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here. Very, very excited. I just had to get

you on the show because I've known you for a very long time, full disclosure. And I've watched as you

become really passionate about helping others. And as long as I've known you, you have always made it a point to give back. I've seen you take your entire family to Mexico and work on homes. You've collected donations for refugees who are starting over in the U.S. It seems to me like you are always doing good for others. And I wanted to know, first of all, where did that

come from and how did that start? So I'll correct you that when we met in our 20s, I was probably

not doing that. But we had other stuff going on in our 20s. Exactly. But how it started was that I had kids.

And I think there's a shift in a lot of parents when they have kids and how you're engaging with the world and your child looking at you engaging with the world.

So that really is how it started.

We go to a church and that unfortunately or fortunately is a way a lot of people

connect with doing good in the world. And I say unfortunately because I have a lot of friends who

don't go to church and they have a difficult time finding ways to involve their kids and do good

in the world. So that's how it started with us. And we started going to church because our kids started asking questions. And then here we are with this little liberal church in Dallas doing a lot of good in the world. And one of those ways was to go to Juarez and build houses. And that's a fun thing to take little boys to do. And so it kind of started as a way I wanted to parent and teach my kids about

the world. And then, as with a lot of things, then it became much more than that for me.

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