Wendy knows firsthand what can happen when travel changes your perspective.
Years ago, after building a career, raising a family, and creating many of the things people associate with a successful life, she still found herself searching for greater meaning and contribution.
Then she met Bill Spalthoff.
Bill had survived a devastating stroke, yet he remained one of the most joyful, adventurous, and compassionate people Wendy had ever known. He had already traveled to 27 countries and hoped to see 100 during his lifetime.
Together, Wendy and Bill spent two years traveling through South America.
Wherever they went, they looked for people quietly doing good inside their own communities. They volunteered, listened to their stories, and became fascinated by what ordinary people could create with very little visibility or support.
Wendy kept thinking that if more people could see these stories and meet the people behind them, they would want to become part of what was possible.
Those travels planted the earliest seed for what would eventually become Let’s Make THE Difference.
In 2019, Bill traveled to Zambia.
He spent time mentoring teachers in a rural community outside Livingstone and called Wendy to talk about ways they might help create greater opportunity for the people he was meeting.
Later that same week, on his birthday, Bill suffered a fatal stroke and died in Zambia.
The last promise Wendy had made to him was that she would find a way to help the teachers and communities he cared about.
She kept it.
Let’s Make THE Difference grew from that promise into an organization supporting refugee-led and locally led work across eleven countries in Africa.
Today, Wendy brings decades of experience in business, design, leadership, communication, and relationship-building to LMTD. She has traveled, experienced profound loss, rebuilt parts of her own life, and seen how deeply people long for connection, purpose, and a way to use their lives meaningfully.
Wendy continues building, traveling, connecting people, and asking what else might be possible.
Her own next chapter was shaped in part by the places she went, the people she met, and what those experiences allowed her to see.
Now she is inviting a small group to experience Kenya alongside her.


























