Andrew Holmes

Andrew Holmes | By Thandiwe McCarthy | Photo by Weekes Photography

After witnessing a man scream racist words at Black Lives Matter protesters on the news in a city close to his, father and marketer Andrew Holmes of Saint John, New Brunswick came up with the powerful message of ‘putting love over it’. “When I saw the news clip, it brought up memories of my own upbringing and dealing with racism,” he says. “It reminded me, this level of hatred has not gone away. I’m in the position where I’m a father now. I have two children who are going to come up against this, whether it be racism or bullying of any kind. As a father, I have the responsibility to have this conversation with them one day.” The shocking reality of how alive and vicious racism is shook him to his core. Holmes realized his children, both under five years old, were too young to have a conversation on its complexities. Instead, he recorded a video speaking to them as if they were teenagers and giving them advice in the future to make sure no matter what hardships they face they can always ‘put love over it’. “I made a quick video with my phone. It was four minutes — basically, giving my advice on this situation as if I was talking to my kids when they were older. My instruction was ‘you’re going to put love over it’. Love being, you know, peace and joy. Not choosing to react in a vengeful way with rage and anger. Keeping yourself peaceful in your own heart and ending the cycle of battling hate with more hate.” The YouTube video went viral. People loved the message of putting love over hatred. Holmes knew he had something special and considered making T-shirts but put the idea off due to his already busy lifestyle. The next day he received an email from a man who came up with a design for his message. Holmes rushed to meet him the same day to make the shirts available for sale. “We ended up taking 300 orders, selling $9,000 worth of shirts in 11 days. We were overwhelmed with the demand and didn’t know what to do. We had to pivot to the largest production facility in Atlantic Canada. They reached out to me the exact same day I was praying for an answer. They said, ‘We want to do this for free, ship them for you, and we are even going to set up a website to handle the orders.’” Holmes donated that first $9000 to his church and PRUDE (Pride of Race, Unity, and Dignity through Education) Inc., an organisation dedicated to helping local minority communities. To Andrew, getting the message out was always more valuable than any amount of money made from selling the shirts. “With the first $9,000 I felt no ownership of that money because it happened way too quickly. I never started this as a means of profit. It wasn’t like I needed to sell some shirts to pay the bills. I needed to get a message out there to help people think differently about some of the decisions they make. Whatever comes of this needs to go back into the initial feeling of promoting love and telling more Black stories.”

This strong sense of community started at a young age for Holmes. When he was growing up in Saint John, he had the privilege of being a Little Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters organisation. “I had a Big Brother when I was young, and it was a great experience. It really helped me to look at someone who gave their free time to me and left a positive impression. So, when I became 21, I thought, ‘I’m old enough now, I can make an impact on my own.’ That’s what led me to become a Big Brother myself, which led me, in turn, to being a member of the board. Then it led me to be on other boards. I really like this whole giving back thing. So yeah, it’s just been ingrained in me because this community has given me so much.” He has given much of his free time to volunteering in the community and making sure the narrative of New Brunswick being a “have-not” province is erased from the minds of the next generation. “When as I was growing up, there were narratives I would hear about Saint John, or even New Brunswick, as being a have-not area. As I started getting older and sharpening my own skills, I started realizing if I wanted Saint John to be a have city, there’s no reason why I can’t participate in that. I don’t think there should be any reason why I can’t do what I want to do here. This city has given me so much because I’m from here. Why do I have to leave to make my dreams come true? Holmes’ message of love and community has become so powerful he was able to partner with the Canadian Hockey League to provide every junior hockey player at the Memorial Cup in late June with a custom shirt. My instruction was ‘You’re going to put “My mission is not to sell a bunch of love over it’.... Keeping yourself peaceful shirts. My mission is to introduce the concept of choosing love, in every in your own heart and ending the cycle of situation of your life. That mission can be accomplished any day by even one battling hate with more hate.” person. All the time people will message me and be like, ‘Oh, I saw your message and it really helped me to forgive this person. Or it helps me see value in myself. Or it helped me to understand where this person was coming from’ — and that’s the win. That’s where I feel like I’m really doing something. Yes, I feel like, ‘What an opportunity to partner with the CHL’ — but the real win is in the people.” The real win is the people. A powerful message of Black excellence, fatherly love, and entrepreneurship all rooted in and empowered by community support. Business Website loveoverit.com Social Media Facebook: loveoverit Instagram: love.over.it Twitter: loveoverit