YBM June 2015 newsletter

Creating A New Reality

YBM Leadership Alliance Newsletter SECOND QUARTER EDITION

june 2015

Preparing Young Men for College Through Leadership Development We are excited to present to you our Quarterly YBM Leadership Alliance Newsletter.

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his communication will inform you of some of our year-to-date activities, and make you aware of important upcoming events. All of our efforts are designed to develop and support our outstanding young men. Witnessing the growth of these young men during our training; our community service; their participation in our Executive Luncheons, and college preparation workshops is a marvelous experience. We solicit your prayers, your personal and financial support in our quest to reach as many young men as possible.

February – An Evening with Harvey Gantt

YBM Ambassadors with Harvey Gantt

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his event was held at the historic Biddle Hall on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University.

This event was attended by a diverse crowd of 200 people. Mr. Gantt talked about his experience as a high school student and his involvement in a “sit in,” a very courageous undertaking at the time.

He stressed three critical points for those who want to make a difference in their community as well as in the world.

First: Be courageous, be

willing to stand up for what you believe.

Second: Get a sound education. This is the root to being respected and having your voice heard.

Third: be an informed and registered voter. You must participate for all your needs to be heard and respected.

This event was the brainchild of one of our high school Ambassadors, Harold Lowe, Jr. Harold met with Mr. Gantt in November and during the meeting asked him if he

would be willing to be the keynote speaker for an event he wanted to plan for Black History Month in February. Mr. Gantt was impressed with the boldness and planning of this young man and confirmed his participation. With the success of this program, Harold plans on hosting a similar event next year even as he will be away at college. We offer our congratulations to Harold for being a great example of displaying planning and leadership skills.

Job Shadowing

John Ham and Kyle Horton Executive Shadowing

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his is an important function to get our young men exposed to the real world of business and community engagement.

Key business leaders agree to have a young man shadow them for a day for this very beneficial real world experience.

John Ham, Director of Marketing for American Products Distribution Inc., spent a day with Ambassador Kyle Horton, student at Mallard Creek High School.

Ambassador Horton was extremely grateful for this shadowing experience. e want to thank Stoney Sellers, President and CEO of StoneLaurel Management Consulting for allowing Ambassador LaMarcus-Smith-Kelly to shadow him for a day. Part of this experience included a board of directors meeting that the Ambassador said was very educational.

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If you would like to volunteer in this capacity, please contact

Ken Currence by email at: currenoct@carolina.rr.com

28 Success Leaders YBM was proud and excited to honor key business and community leaders in honor of Black History Month.

Black History Month Celebration

YBM Leadership Alliance had the distinct pleasure to select and honor a success leader for each day of the month of February. Each honoree recorded a short video giving credit to their primary success drivers and also gave kudos to the influencers in their lives. You can view these individual videos at: http://

www.ybmleadership.com/ ybm-success-leaders-2/ These leaders inspire us all with their success and the impact that they have in our community. Their exposure to the young men of YBM will help to motivate and develop this next generation of leaders.

These leaders had over 20,000 hits on Facebook.

The leaders were honored at an event on March 16th at the Harvey B. Gantt Center. This celebration was attended by various leaders from the Charlotte community, philanthropists, members of community boards, media, and family and friends of the Success Leaders.

April / May Ambassador Parents. Behind every successful, wellrounded young man, one will find a source of inspiration!

The Ambassador Parents serve as that source and the extended village. The purpose of this group is to equip, empower and educate our young men as they complete their final year of high school and embark upon their college journey. This group is hard at work. In April, they came together to assemble care packages for the 29 College Ambassadors. On May 30th, they held the first in a series of three workshops entitled, “Preparing for Senior Year and Beyond.� It has been well documented that the transition from high school to college can be very challenging to the student and the parents. The next workshop will be held on Saturday, September 12th.

Thank You to our Ambassador Parents!

Ambassador Parents Workshop

Top 100 Recognition Ceremony April

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his annual celebration event was held at the University Hilton to highlight the achievements

of young black male high school juniors. The parents, friends, and educators in attendance

were incredibly enthusiastic in honoring the success of these outstanding young men.

Dr. James Taylor of Carolinas Medical Center, keynote speaker.

YBM National Scholars Day

Ambassadors Announce Colleges and Scholarships

may

scholars day YBM National Scholar Day was held at the University Hilton on May 31st. It was a wonderful and moving event. All who attended had a great time celebrating YBM’s young men as they announced their college choices and scholarship awards.

Watching the young men put on their college hats and hearing them speak

with pride about the college selections and scholarship awards was truly inspirational. Some of the fruits of their hard work are: These young men earned over $870k worth of scholarships.

Four young men received full ride scholarships with another three pending.

Harold Lowe Jr. received the $2k YBM Presidential Scholarship Award.

LaMarcus Smith-Kelly received the $2k Deborah Gallant Scholarship Award.

Senator Joel Ford was the keynote speaker for this well attended event.

January Speaker Stoney Sellers, President and CEO of StoneLaurel Management Consulting Co.

April Speaker Jesse Cureton, Chief Consumer Officer of Novant Health Care

Upcoming July Speaker Tim Atwell SVP Technology Executive – Data Operations

Moving On...

Thank you to the financial supporters of our YBM mission.

As a result of your support, we were able to provide $7,800 in scholarships to our 2015 National Scholars at our 3rd Annual Scholars Day Event! This marvelous event was planned by our Program Manager, DeLisa Tolbert and her talented team of volunteers. We look forward to watching these men continue to show their appreciation by their success in the classroom and their community involvement. Thank you again from the bottom of all of our hearts for your contributions!

YOU are the reason YBM can make a difference!

We cannot express how grateful we are for YOU! When you choose to make a difference in the lives of our young black men, we want you to remember that you are doing a phenomenal thing!

Without you and your ongoing support, the choices you’ve made for your life, and your purpose, we could not continue to make an impact!

In this edition of the YBM Donor’s Corner we would like to especially thank the South Charlotte Chapter of Jack and Jill for their kind donation to our Top 100 Program! Their donation of $2,250 will go towards our service work in Haiti! THANK YOU!!!!!!

So, how does one know for certain that they are making a contribution to their village, to the community in which they reside, and to the world at large EVERY day of their life? By giving!

IF YOU are looking for a place where your gift can make a difference in the lives of young black men that are encouraged to change the world through leadership via serving – look no further! You can simply go to the link below, and scroll down the page and choose how to give on a monthly basis.

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/ybmleadership

YOU ARE AWESOME! WE THANK YOU!!!

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UPCOMING EVENTS

YBM Haiti Mission Trip A team of 12 will travel to Haiti August 1-6. This team will share in the distribution of shoes, food items and engage in fellowship and prayer with Haiti children at various schools and orphanages. Additionally, they will host several Haitian young men and provide leadership workshops for them. In July, this team along with volunteers will host a “pack-a-thon” to prepare 1200 meals. This is the equivalent of one meal per day and will feed the orphanage for a full year. If you would like to assist in the financial needs or volunteer to help pack these meals, please contact YBM Leadership Alliance.

•••• YBM Annual Gala

will be held in November at the Mint Museum. Please Save the Date and more information will follow. Please consider being a table sponsor as this is our largest fund raising effort for the year. Please contact us at YBM Leadership Alliance.

Please go to the

YBMLeadershipAlliance.com website and sign up to get on our email list so that you can be made aware of

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President’s Corner “Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

~ Margaret Mead

At YBM, we believe we can change the world!

During our mission trip to Haiti last year, we were able to serve 32 orphans living in extreme poverty.

We vowed to work to change their lives for the better. There is a lot to do.

They have no consistent food to eat or clean water to drink. They live in a house that was so severely damaged by the 2010 earthquake it should be condemned. They have no bathrooms, running water, or electricity where they live.

Perhaps we cannot solve world hunger, BUT together we can change the world of these 32 orphans.

YBM Project32 has a simple objective – Help 32 Orphans in Haiti have a better life. Working

together, we seek to give these children a decent chance at surviving and being successful. It’s just that simple.

You can be a SUPERHERO! Your giving can change this world.

Our immediate goal is to provide consistent food, clean water and supplies to the 32 orphans for a full year – 365 days. Working 12

with three international organizations: Samaritan’s Feet, Feed the Hunger and Heartline Ministries, we have determined it only takes one dollar per child, per day to provide food, water and supplies for these children.

CEO and Founder YBM Leadership Alliance

Our 2015 YBM Project32 goals: 1) Raise $365 for each orphan in 32 days - July 1st through August 1st 2) Pack 12,000 meals for the 32 orphans on Mandela Day - July 18 (We need 67 volunteers) 3) Travel to Haiti (Aug 1st – 6th) to provide the food, water, supplies, shoes and lots of LOVE 4) Secure 365 days’ worth of water and supplies for the children, with the assistance of Heartline Ministries and Feed the Hunger We need YOU to achieve our goals to change the world for these children!

We need you to join our small group of committed, caring people TODAY: 1) Sponsor a child for a year at $365, or sponsor all 32 children for one day at $32, or make a contribution of any amount.

2) Volunteer your time for the pack-a-thon on Saturday, July 18 .

Visit our website (www.ybmleadership.com/ybmproject32) to contribute and to volunteer.

Thank YOU for helping us Create a New Reality for these young children.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Find us online at www.ybmleadership.com For questions and event information contact: Ken Currence at currenoct@carolina.rr.com 13

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