The Atlanta Journal Constitution features Sam Bracken and the Orange Duffel Bag Foundation’s work with teens aging out of foster care. They get it. Kathy Louis Patrick has said My Orange Duffel Bag-A Journey to Radical Change deserves to be a bestseller, and with coverage like this………it will get there.
From AJC:
Sam Bracken was 18 years old when he left an abusive childhood in Las Vegas, boarded an airplane for only the second time and headed east.
His mother had thrown him out of the house three years before, and he managed to get through high school while living with a friend’s family. When he landed in Atlanta, he possessed only two things: a football scholarship to Georgia Tech and an orange duffel bag stuffed with everything he owned.
“He had one pair of jeans and one T-shirt,” recalled John Porter, an Atlanta business exec who attended Tech with Bracken in the early 1980s. “And it must have been very strange, moving from Nevada to Georgia.”
On Monday, Bracken was back in Atlanta with a message for other unfortunate youth. After almost two years of planning, the first 12 teens graduated from the pilot leadership program he designed for the state’s Division of Family and Children Services office. The concept, based on lessons he learned through his rough upbringing, his time at Tech and his successful segue to a meaningful life, offered teens in the state’s foster care system the chance to develop their own visions for the future and specific goals to achieve their dreams.
One of the best things about this book is that it gives the reader actionable things to consider on their journey through life. We all are on a journey. Through the Orange Duffel Bag they are actively working with kids to create a program that they can pass through, and hopefully apply some of things Sam had to apply to his journey as a homeless teen. He’s been there.
More from the AJC article:
The list of Bracken’s life-altering moments are still fresh in his 47-year-old mind: the friend whose family took him in and taught him what “normal” was; Georgia Tech football coach Bill Curry who gave him a scholarship; a friend’s parent who gave him a summer job when he was broke; the couple who took him home after church one morning and fed him. Through those acts of grace, he never lost his faith in the future. It’s a story that resonates with Mashon Meadows, an 18-year-old who lives in an independent group home in College Park and was selected for the pilot program.
“I was four when I was taken away from my mom and was in and out of the foster system,” Meadows said. “I went from home to home. I was raped; I ran away from home. I was house-hopping.”
Meadows has now spent almost a year in College Park and is working on a GED while planning to own her own restaurant. Being part of the leadership program has helped define her path.
“I had never broken it down to different pieces before, but Mr. Sam taught me how to do it,” she said. “I put down my mission, my values and what goals I’m working on.”
Kathy Herren, the deputy director of programs and policy for Family and Children Services, said those personal connections were the best part of the 8-week program.
“Sam is someone our youth can identify with,” she said. “His personal story is very compelling, but he is not the sum of his past. He showed them that by having a clear vision and setting goals, he is where he is today. I’d like to see this program have a statewide influence.”
Bracken also dreams of taking his Orange Duffel Bag program to the rest of the country.
Powerful stuff. We will make sure My Orange Duffel Bag goes to every state in the Union on the 2010 50 States in 50 Days tour. I think house concerts will be a perfect setting for some music, and a glimpse into this book and the cause. Please pick up your copy of My Orange Duffel Bag, and consider hosting a house concert in your State? Also, please join the “I Support Kevin Montgomery’s 50 States in 50 Days tour” Facebook group! Oh, and please read the full article, so that we get this story onto the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution today!!!
Important! If you are in the Atlanta area this Sunday, Aug. 1st, then please think about attending the book signing at Borders Books and Music! Sam, and Echo Montgomery Garrett will both be there and signing. We need to sell 10 copies to get the attention of Borders’ Corporate office. Come out and support!
Travel further into 50 States in 50 Days........
What are your thoughts on this?
Tagged as:
50 States in 50 Days,
aging out of foster care,
American football,
Atlanta,
Atlanta Journal Constitution,
Book signing,
Children Youth and Family,
Echo Montgomery Garrett,
Foster care,
Georgia Institute of Technology,
High school,
homeless teens.,
House Concerts,
Kathy L. Patrick,
Kevin Montgomery,
My Orange Duffel Bag-A journey to Radical Change,
Orange Duffel Bag,
Orange Duffel Bag Foundation,
Sam Bracken,
tour
{ 2 trackbacks }