Today we’d like to introduce you to Gracie Krucke.
Hi Gracie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Back in 2016, when I was a junior in high school, I went on a mission trip to San Juan de Lurigancho (SJL), Lima, Peru. I had been on a mission trip to Brazil a couple of years before, but I didn’t feel this urge that I just had to go back. My experience in Peru was completely different. I clearly remember riding on a bus down the third-world city streets a few days into my first trip there thinking, “There is something bigger for me here.”
A decade later, I will be going on my 13th and 14th trip to Peru and am the Associate Director for a nonprofit headquartered in SJL called Make a Miracle. In 2023, Make a Miracle expanded to Colombia, and I have loved playing a part in growing our outreach and staff in that country as well. Make a Miracle provides college scholarships to Peruvian and Colombian students who are in desperate financial situations. In return for the scholarship, our Miracle Scholars as we call them, run our housing and community outreach programs.
I love working with Carolyn, our Founder and President, on growing this NGO. She is such a visionary and has made thousands of miracles for families across Peru and Colombia.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I was blessed to be able to go to SJL on mission trips twice in high school. When I went to college, I worked for Georgia Football running their social media, and the only time I ever really had off was spring break. In 2019, Make a Miracle brought me to Peru to do professional photography and videography. It was my version of the perfect spring break, so I did it again in 2020.
I remember driving through the streets in Peru when a vendor placed a newspaper on our dashboard with the word “COVID” printed in bright red letters. I remember laughing about it with our driver—we had no idea what the pandemic would turn into at that point in March 2020. My mom started calling me more frequently, urging me to cut my trip short and come home before the world shut down. Being a college kid, I was like, “Nah, it’ll be fine.”
I ended up on the last flight out of Peru to the U.S. before everything shut down for months.
After graduating from college in 2021, I moved to Nashville, TN, where I managed social media for a news media company. I was dying to go back to Peru, but between a just-out-of-college budget and the fact that time off in the news industry is hard to come by, a couple of years went by and I wasn’t able to return.
In December 2022, I ran into Carolyn at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Buford, GA, on Christmas Eve. I was there with my grandparents; she was across town visiting one of her daughters. I walked up to her and her husband and, embarrassingly nervous, said, “If you ever need photos or videos, I’d love to go back.” She said she would love to have me and told me to pick some dates.
Even more months passed, and I still couldn’t get the time off. In April 2023, while cleaning up after a church event, I picked up a piece of paper. Written on it in black Sharpie was one word: “Peru.” I showed it to my husband and said, “God?”
The next morning, I went into my boss’s office, about to throw up from nerves, and said, “Can I go to Peru over Labor Day to volunteer with this nonprofit I work with?” He barely looked up from his computer and said, “Maybe. Maybe.”
I booked my flight later that day, moved back to Georgia that summer, and officially started working for MAM that fall.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
It was actually on my first trip to Peru in 2016, when I was a rising senior in high school, that I discovered I had a knack for videography. I spent my entire senior year learning the ins and outs of shooting and editing by filming weddings.
My freshman year of college, I was hired by Georgia Football to create videos for their social media. Throughout college, outside of my work with football, I had the opportunity to shoot concerts, major political events, and events for well-known brands, among other things.
However, despite my deep love for Georgia Football, shooting in Peru has always been my favorite. The colors of the houses perched on dusty mountains, the smiles kids give you as they run by, the tears shed by recipients of our programs, and don’t even get me started on the puppies.
I truly believe it was my work in Peru that allowed me to represent the U.S. at the Cannes Lions Roger Hatchuel Academy during the 2020 Cannes Lions Festival. Only 40 people from around the world were selected to participate. UGA nominated this little advertising major, and I was chosen.
I owe it all to Peru. Had I not picked up a camera in 2016, who knows where I’d be.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love how central ATL is. The airport makes travel so easy. Going to the beach is easy. Going to the lake is easy. Going to Georgia football games is easy. My least favorite part is the traffic. By far.
Pricing:
- For $99/month, you can change a life by sending a student to college.
- For $1,800, you can build a family a three bedroom home.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.makeamiracle.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makeamiracletoday/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makeamiracletoday
Image Credits
I took all the photos that I am not in! Jose, a Make a Miracle graduate, took the rest. The photo of me with the braids is from my first trip in 2016. The photo of the man and wife with the graduate is of our co-founders Jack and Carolyn Canouse. Jack Canouse is also a managing partner of Stars and Strikes.
