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CLICK HERE to DONATE or e-mail brad.mason@justkeeppouring.com or call Coach Mason at 407-920-3674 to arrange in-kind donations! And REMEMBER: No matter how little you have, you ALWAYS have something to give. BE STRONG! GIVE MORE! Thank you!!
Picking up from yesterday... So WHAT? What has THE GIVE TEAM accomplished?
We’ve been blessed with some amazing young souls. One alumnus is a co-founder of the team, and is a staff member of New Image Youth Center, a personal trainer building his own business while also helping his mother. Another is the youngest member of the PhD program in Computer Science at Auburn University (currently in Nigeria for his studies). Another is a senior on a full academic scholarship at University of Florida. Another is employed full time while taking classes at Valencia College in their Accelerated Skills program. Another graduated high school in 2018 and is enlisting in the Marine Corps. Two graduated high school in 2019, with one employed full time on a track to head back to Florida A&M (his mission is to graduate debt free) and the other enrolled as a freshman on a full academic scholarship at Morehouse College. Yet another has a GED and is working to get things on track after finding himself on the wrong side of right a year ago. These guys continue to set the bar for those who now follow. • For THE GIVE TEAM to take credit for the results of alumni would be disingenuous. The strongest common thread is each came through New Image Youth Center. The Give Team is a New Image Youth Center program, and an extension of the hard work done every day at NIYC. The other common thread is they learned to thrive while growing up in a neighborhood once named one of America’s most dangerous. Before our workout last Saturday, we spent a few minutes talking about the “200 cop cars” out front one of our boys’ homes the night before, responding to repeated gunfire. We talked about how last week there were more shots than normal. Tough to figure why. Tough to sleep with all that action outside your window. That didn’t stop him from waking up Saturday morning to do things that aren’t comfortable. After all, you gotta get up and go get it ‘cuz it ain’t coming to get you. And if it IS coming to get you, best get off your ass and be ready for it.
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CLICK HERE to DONATE or e-mail brad.mason@justkeeppouring.com or call Coach Mason at 407-920-3674 to arrange in-kind donations! And REMEMBER: No matter how little you have, you ALWAYS have something to give. BE STRONG! GIVE MORE! Thank you!!
To follow our progress this week as we seek assistance from ANGELS in our community, check us out in Instagram or Facebook - or both. To find out HOW you can donate, CLICK HERE.
The following was posted earlier this evening on social media: THEME OF THE WEEK: “How fundable are your outcomes?” As board members of New Image Youth Center we were being coached by an expert in non-profit fundraising, and that was our challenge. Answer that question. The reality is, The Give Team needs a little help. The Give Team takes a commitment, and 2019 has been different than 2018. The commitment has been to coaching, and not as much on raising the funds we need to do what we do. The workouts are free, so that’s easy. It’s the events that require $$$. To net it out, we need to come up with $960 between now and Thursday in order for The Give Team to participate in The Green Beret Challenge trail run (sorry, Mark – it’ll always be GBC and the White Sox will always play in Comiskey Park). We’ve found our way to four events in 2019, thanks to incredible efforts from many who follow our team (and most importantly, thanks to the generosity, compassion and understanding nature of Mrs. Andrea Mason). Our original model accounts for two races - one at the end of the spring, and one at the end of the fall as a reward for the hard work put in during each season. If not for Spartan and the people behind that organization, we wouldn’t have run the four races we’ve run (THREE during the spring - one in Jacksonville, one in West Palm Beach and the third in Ft. Bragg). If not for MANY individuals who donated their time, money, gently used footwear, etc., we wouldn’t have had the experiences we’ve had. Our team was faced with a choice earlier this year, after I saw our challenge with funding. Part of our program involves SATURDAY WORKOUTS followed by SATURDAY BREAKFASTS. As participation increased, breakfasts became more expensive (between $110 - $150 a week, for those keeping track at home). The choice was theirs to make: keep the breakfasts and have less events, or more events and scrap breakfast. It was unanimous. The guys chose the events (more to come on the angels who've helped with our "breakfast issue"). Why? Because each event creates lifelong memories and strengthens relationships with people they wouldn’t otherwise know. After all, life is team sport. Each event creates experiences with people like the men and women of Operation Enduring Warrior who share the same vision as The Give Team – build stronger communities by rallying as a team around those who are traveling a difficult path. If you’ve ever run a race with us, you know these races impact those around us. How fundable is that? You tell me after you hit this link. That’s simple third grade math, but graduate level psychology. IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO MIGHT HELP, please forward this along to them. NEXT POST: What HAS The Give Team accomplished? Put another way, SO WHAT? |
AuthorBrad Mason is head coach of The Give Team, and a firm believer that no matter how little you think you have, you ALWAYS have something to give. So give more. Give more smiles, more compliments, more focus, and more effort. Archives
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