Last Saturday, I attended an alumni meeting of an organization I was a participant in while in high school. This organization’s mission is to “train and develop young people with a hands-on experience and holistic approaches.” Sitting in that meeting, I realized how much more I could be giving of my time and talents, not just with that group but in so many other ways.
This leads me to the Tyler’s. It was reported in early February that Calvin E. Tyler, Jr. along with his wife Tina, endowed a $5 million scholarship fund to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. WOW! According to the article they have made smaller donations to the university in the past but decided to make a larger donation to help students stay in school. Very fitting as Mr. Tyler had to drop out of Morgan State in the 60’s because he could no longer afford stay especially as a newlywed with a family to support. He landed a job with United Parcel Service (UPS) as a driver and worked his way up the corporate ladder. In the Washington Post, he shared how attending Morgan truly impacted his life. So happy he decided to give it to an HBCU (History Black College or Unviersity) unlike Dr. Dre but that is another topic for another day that has already been debated enough.
I do not have $5 million to donate (I will and more one day) but I can focus on what I can do now. If you are like me, you want to donate all you can but we have to start somewhere. I remember volunteering right out of high school at the Washington Literacy Council (WLC). The focus of WLC is to raise the literacy levels of adults and children using a structured reading program. It was fulfilling to help especially because I have such a great love of books and reading. I am trying to remember why I stopped volunteering. Sigh. So instead of creating a whole new list of what I could do, I am going back to one I started on this blog in, “What’s on your Agenda?” Here was my list then:
- Go to the local school to volunteer (read to pre-school kids, start a reading program after school, tutor, buy needed supplies that the county will not purchase due to budget constraints, etc.) This would require, I hope, a background check but I know I have not killed anyone or stolen money so I should be good.
- Encourage my neighborhood HOA to connect with the surrounding communities to start a task force in connection with the police department for a safer livable community.
- Mentor a young person but exposing them to things outside of their normal day to day. Who knows, I may be influencing a future POTUS, an engineer or ballerina.
- Feed and/or cloth the homeless. I have to remember that they need resources all year around, not just during the Christmas holiday.
I want to and will add so many more things to this list. Who knows…I could establish the next great initiative like Bryan Stevenson where Google or Bill & Melinda Gates gives me a blank check to run the world with it. What are some of the things you could be doing now to pay it forward? Feel free to share it in the comments.
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