OUTLOOK The Official Newsletter for Supporters of Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries
Fall 2013
Your Gift Makes a Difference for Young People Like Jamal Meet Goodwill’s Special Guest Speaker From The Good Party Maybe you know a young person like Jamal. He’s bright and energetic. He loves playing sports and he has a great future ahead of him — at college and beyond. But earlier this year, Jamal’s life almost ended tragically. “I was playing basketball,” says Jamal. “I tripped and fell. My heart had stopped.” Jamal spent more than two weeks in the hospital. For the first seven days, he was in a coma. “After waking up, I didn’t know where I was,” he says. “I had terrible memory loss. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t even talk. One of the doctors walked up to my mom at the hospital and said: your son is not going to make it.” What happened to Jamal was especially devastating news to everyone at Goodwill. You see, Jamal grew up nearby in Roxbury, MA. He attended Madison Park High School. He is also part of the Goodwill family — and he has been for a very long time. Eleven Years Ago Jamal’s mother is the one who sent him to Goodwill eleven years ago. She knew that Goodwill offered a safe haven to kids. She wanted her young son to avoid the streets, and be in the structured environment that Goodwill provides. “My journey started one summer at Goodwill’s Fresh Air Camp,” says Jamal. “Later, I enrolled in Goodwill’s mentoring program.” Even as his family experienced the violence of his neighborhood firsthand, Jamal persevered. He became a Goodwill mentor himself and then enrolled in college last year.
Jamal has relied on Goodwill for more than a decade. Today, he is a sophomore at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA. These pictures show him at The Good Party 2013 — where he also met Keith Motley, PhD, Chancellor of UMass Boston.
Throughout his childhood, Jamal relied on Goodwill. He depended on the programs that you make possible when you give. That’s why Jamal was invited to tell his story at Goodwill’s annual fundraiser — The Good Party — which was held in June. He is a great example for how your support of Goodwill makes a life-changing difference to young people in need. At His Bedside “Goodwill’s programs have helped me in so many ways,” says Jamal. “When I woke up from my coma, it was no shock to see members of my Goodwill family at my bedside.”
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