Strength in Numbers

1OO MEN WHO CARE OF HILTON HEAD STRIVE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE NUMBERS Strength in 100 MEN WHO CARE PRESENTS A CHECK TO PROGRAMS FOR EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE.

BY BARRY KAUFMAN | PHOTO BY MADISON ELROD

There are problems that seem overwhelming, that fixing them is a task far more weighty than any one person can endure. Poverty. Hunger. Disease.

We all see them and witness the devastation they can wreak on a community. And we all say the same thing. “I’m just one person. What can I do?”

One person can’t do much, if anything. But get 100 or so people together, bound to one another by a desire to make the world a better place, and you can work miracles.

Mike Bruce found that out firsthand when his wife asked him to put his video-editing skills to use one day. The video at question was being produced for 100 Women Who Care, and at the time Bruce didn’t realize how much it would change his life.

“After it was done, I asked my wife what became of that group, and she told me they had given a donation of $17,000,” he said. “I wondered, how could a group make a decision that quickly? Within an hour they had that money to give. I thought, the men can do that as well.”

He began looking into the organization, the 100 Who Care Alliance. A loosely affiliated group of 735 chapters worldwide, the concept behind the 100 Who Care Alliance is simple.

You gather your group, leveraging your sheer numbers to multiply the impact you can have, and you meet periodically to determine the beneficiary of your largesse, then everyone gives $100 per quarter. The combined donating power of the entire group turns one person’s efforts into a massive effort.

“What inspired me was the simplicity of it: the ability we have to move quickly and push funds out directly without overhead,” he said. The local chapter began, as nearly every great idea does, with a few guys sitting

around the firepit. “I thought if we could get 20 people together, that would be a great thing.”

He underestimated by just a hair. Before long the word was spreading about this group of 100 (give or take) men looking to make a difference, and Bruce was surprised with the number of membership requests.

Communities like Spanish Wells got the word out, driving up membership. A recreational tennis league on the island recruited from their ranks. Even an icon like Stan Smith with his support for the Boys & Girls Club has joined in proselytizing the virtues of the 100 Men Who Care.

So much so, in fact, that the group’s name should really be closer to 120 Men Who Care. “I’m surprised it got to this number of folks. I don’t know where it goes or where it stops, but the women got up to around 180 members.”

And what these 120 men have been able to do is extraordinary. Since starting up a year and a half ago, they have had a collective impact of nearly $70,000 locally, spread out among organizations like Volunteers in Medicine, Programs for Exceptional People, Backpack Buddies, the Hilton Head Island Boys & Girls Club and more, with secondary awards helping fill coffers of worthy nonprofits around the Lowcountry.

“Sometimes I call it blue-collar giving,” said Bruce. “It’s just a lot of guys who get together from different backgrounds. Some are very well off, and some just come with a passion for giving… It’s a way to give back. It’s humbling for me; I didn’t realize what a blessing it would be for me to participate.”

They’ve been able to give so much so quickly partially because of their strength in numbers, and partially because of the speed with which they make decisions. It starts the first week of every quarter, when they draw three golf balls out of a bag representing three of the multiple charities nominated by their members. The three individuals who nominated those groups give a 10-minute presentation and Q-&-A session, and then it goes up for a vote. The votes are all counted by the following Monday to allow for remote members, and the money is presented to the nonprofit selected by the group.

“The presentation isn’t often about the financial needs of an organization, it’s a personal testimony of where these men have seen a need and how we can address that specific need,” said Bruce. “We can go anywhere and find a charity. What’s more important is addressing what we have seen on the island.”

It’s a process that puts funds directly into the hands of the people who can do the most good, delivered by a group of men who come together in the spirit of giving. It’s also a great opportunity for those of us who have been asking, “What can I do?”

Find out when the group meets again, July 14. If you’d like to be a part of the giving, email mike@100menwhocarehhi.com.

WHERE TO

“IF YOU BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU’RE DOING, GET ADVICE FROM PEOPLE YOU CAN TRUST.”

THE LOWCOUNTRY HELPED SPRINGBOARD FABIO FREY’S BURGEONING CAREER IN FILM

BY VICKIE MCINTYRE PHOTOS SUPPLIED

When Fabio Frey graduated from Hilton Head High School in 2007, he knew he wanted to be a movie director, but he had no idea how to make it happen. Nevertheless, the self-described “road-dog-adventure type” found his way. “My Dead Dad,” a film directed by Frey and co-written by Frey and Pedro Correa, is expected to air on HBO Max this June after winning numerous film festival awards. The movie is a coming-of-age drama about a young man wrestling with news that his estranged father has died and left him an apartment complex in Los Angeles. Through a group of “eclectic” tenants, he learns about the father he never knew. The film brings Frey one step closer towards solidifying his place in the movie industry, a goal that’s been full of obstacles and surprises. For starters, Frey was born in Switzerland, where he spoke fluent German. “I didn’t speak English until my parents put me in kindergarten at Sea Pines Montessori,” he says. “That’s one of my SCENES OF SUCCESS earliest memories – being really scared and confused that everyone was speaking German wrong.” His parents, Marc and Anuska Frey, first made the trans-Atlantic trip to Hilton Head for their honeymoon, eventually relocating here with their two sons and purchasing Golfer’s Guide, and then Hilton Head Monthly. Although both parents have a love and appreciation for the arts, Fabio suspects that neither thought it was feasible to make a living directing films. Yet, it was his mother who got the ball rolling. “I was really shy as a kid, and my mom put me in theater because she thought it would force me to open up a bit more. It definitely worked,” he laughs. Growing up, Frey remembers creating stories in his head and acting them out, but he didn’t connect the dots until he transferred to the public high school from Hilton Head Preparatory School and joined the theater group. “The theater program was really, really good,” he says. “I had one teacher, Mr. Pilgreen, who definitely changed the course of my life. Watching him shaped my desires to direct.” Frey also credits the island for being “just boring enough to force us [kids] to be creative.”

WE GOT MORE AND MORE AMBITIOUS, RECALLS FREY. ONE OF THOSE SHOWS AIRED ON YOUTUBE AND CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF COMEDY CENTRAL, WHICH HAD TWO MILLION VIEWERS A NIGHT.

Frey’s creative energy went into writing skits — many of them comedies — that he and his friends produced on their own with their teacher’s blessing, using an old black box theater that seldom was used after the school built a large stage.

Although dramas and musicals were the mainstay of the theater program, original productions became popular with other students. Frey directed a show his senior year, igniting the dream to go further.

PURSUING A DREAM

Honoring his father’s wishes to major in something “practical,” Frey pursued a business degree at the University of South Carolina, but he also started producing skits for the campus TV station.

“We got more and more ambitious,” recalls Frey. “One of those shows aired on YouTube and caught the attention of Comedy Central, which had two million viewers a night.”

After graduation, Frey used his talents to create a commercial production company in Columbia, S.C., with his friend, Joey.

“More and more businesses asked us to make commercials for them and we even produced a music video for Gamecock fans that got like 400,000 views in a few weeks,” recalls Frey.

Filming on location in LA

An “itch to do something more” led both men to Los Angeles, where Joey and two other friends from South Carolina rented a house, dubbed “the comedy frat house.”

“It had kind of an open-door policy,” explains Frey, who had his own apartment. “People from the L.A. comedy scene were always coming and going, and we made a lot of short videos together.”

Correa, a frequent visitor, accompanied Frey one Christmas Eve for dinner at the Screen Actors Guild. Between courses, they hatched the idea for My Dead Dad.

“We wrote it together and shot a fake trailer with three scenes and visual footage of the main character skateboarding,” Frey said. “When we asked people to read the script, we’d send the trailer too.”

As unknowns, it was hard to get the script read, but the video opened doors, especially when Frey and Correa decided to forego a producer and raise the money themselves.

With a small budget of $250,000, Frey built a crew to handle sound and filming, while Correa landed an Oscarwinning casting director thanks to a persistent phone call and a well-rehearsed pitch.

Five weeks later, filming was finished.

“It took us a year and a half to go from seed idea to shooting, then a year to finish editing,” says Frey. “Between then and when we sold to HBO was almost four years.”

Frey with actors Pedro Correa and Steven Bauer What did he learn?

“The quality of the team determines how something will turn out,” says Frey, remarking how proud he is of the team that he and Correa put together.

He also learned to ask for help.

“If you believe in what you’re doing,” says Frey, “get advice from people you can trust.”

Declan Baldwin, a founding partner at Big Indie Pictures, was one of those people. Although Correa couldn’t afford to hire a professional editor, Declan helped strike a deal to get feedback from one of the industry’s best during various stages of the editing process.

“It made the project much better,” admits Frey, reminiscing about his cross-country trip to various film festivals in the RV that serves as home for him and his wife, who’s enrolled in veterinary school.

Woodstock Film Festival, his first stop, delivered the initial ripples of positive reactions to the movie. From there, the kudos continued.

Festivals in Jacksonville, Santa Clarita, and Santa Fe resulted in awards. HBO’s offer was icing on the cake.

“It’s all about building up this circle of people who answer the phone when you call,” says Frey, hoping he can keep the momentum going with his next film which is set outside of Nashville.

Judging from the road he’s already traveled Frey seems wellequipped to parlay one success into another.

Blocking out a scene on the set of My Dead Dad.