Ember Balt 8

In January of 2012, a group of college kids from Salisbury Uni showed up at my house to participate in a discussion about the book Toxic Charity. This gathering was actually planned by one of these kids and she forced me to host it. Not that I wasn't a willing participant - quite the opposite. It was a super discussion and most of what I remember was my suggestion at thinking about idea models [credit to Ben Arment] and how that could be related to charity being non-toxic.

Fast forward about three years and some of these students start a mentoring project where college kids devote at least one evening a week to an elementary or middle school aged child in one of two low income neighborhoods. Most of it gets started by Jake and Wendy going door to door to families they sort of know asking if they might be interested.

This past weekend, four years later, The Ember Cast had the privilege of hosting the Community Mentoring Program for a little service project in Baltimore. The big idea was that providing an experience for these kids who have been served to serve someone else might be a phenomenal time and it was. So impressed with the volunteers with CMP and have loved tracking with them for the past seven years or so.

Special thanks to Erin Preshoot and Serve the City Baltimore for helping connect us with the Believe in Tomorrow house.