I had to make my own living and my own opportunity.
But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to
come. Get up and make them.
–Madam C. J. Walker
A lonely childhood heightened by poverty and illness defined
Brandon Bartholomew’s early life.
When we first met, I had been focusing on
environmental stewardship as well as child advocacy, helping kids
in group homes who had suffered abuse and abandonment. The
horse therapy program for renegade kids who were wild at heart,
was working. Now, I had the opportunity to turn my desire to
supporting at risk kids in a more financially direct way.
After exploring a financial literacy program, we decided at the
last minute, to set up a small nonprofit. Funded by my company
and other donors, we awarded seed-money grants to community
organizations.
The day I met Brandon Bartholomew it was raining lightly.
His grant request, to improve the human condition, won him an
opportunity to present to our Board of Directors and he was
waiting in the anteroom. I had no idea what to expect when this
handsome, understated man entered the conference room.
* * *
Brandon Bartholomew was dressed in a dark-gray wool suit,
white starched shirt, and purple tie, making it hard to tell he was
a thin man. His tortoiseshell glasses accented the ebony color of
his skin, eyes, and close-cropped graying hair. His demeanor was
serious—until he smiled like a morning sunrise.
Not readily apparent from his façade was what he had
overcome. As I later learned, Brandon’s father had died when he
was eight. His mother raised him on her nurse’s salary, but she also
died early in his life.
Brandon was fortunate to find activities such as science,
academics, and business that bolstered his spirit. He’d preferred
sports but grew to accept his limitations as an athlete. His backup
plan was to become highly educated and use his practical
knowledge to adopt nontraditional alternatives.
The week following Brandon’s presentation, the panel granted
his request for funding, and he was informed by email. After the
long Veterans Day weekend, I went in my office to catch up on a
stack of unread mail that had arrived before the holiday. Among
the credit-card offers, bills, and advertisements was a handwritten
note on personal stationery from Brandon Reddox Bartholomew.
“Thank you very much,” he wrote, “for giving financial support to
improve the way physicians serve impoverished patients in central
Mississippi.” He closed the letter with an invitation to visit him at
his home in Starkville, Mississippi.
The letter struck me as unusual. Most responses of gratitude
are staged and rather superfluous. They arrive on letterheads of the
receiving entity, addressed collectively to the entire panel. Why
had this man reached out with thanks in such a way?
Writer-Rebel-Producer-Poet
Break From the Crowd
Financial freedom fighter
Economic justice activist
Author and Journalist Kevin Palmer
SMA Institute Kevin Palmer
http://KevinJPalmerAuthor.com/
https://www.smainstitute.com/journalism.html
http://reawakeninganamericandream.com
