Motivational Speaker, President/Founder of Teen Action Program, and senior at Ripley High School
That’s my bi-line which has many titles and many talents within each one, but the one I want to focus on right now is President/Founder of Teen Action Program. I want to take you “behind the scenes” of my title as President/Founder.
In 2012, I founded a nonprofit, then called Voices of America. With our five year anniversary being this past July, I have succumbed to many new thoughts and lessons in the past five years of running a nonprofit. I’ve had successes and failures, more failures than successes.
I knew from the beginning that things weren’t going to easy, but I found out within the first year or so that things were going to harder than I expected. It’s hard enough trying to run a nonprofit without any money, but it is even harder doing by yourself. It is possible to run a nonprofit by yourself, but it’s hard; there are times you just know you can advance your mission and cause if you had more people on your side.
I mentioned early that as President/Founder I have had more failures than successes, and that is ever true. I tell you there were times where as I was planning something all the plans were lining up with no problem, but then somehow I would run into a problem and either stop or prolong what was I was planning. Earlier this year I was planning a fundraiser event, and all the details were lining up with no problem then I realized I would have postpone to a later date; not because of anything major, but because any order to get the decorations and tickets I needed for the event I would need more money than I had (which was like $30) which meant I would have to do a fundraiser first.
Money, unfortunately, is my biggest problem. I could do so much more than what I wish to do if I had adequate finances. I won’t talk about any specific times because this post would be so long (5 years long), but right now I would like to take the time to plead for donations. If you’re reading this post and would like to help us out, please donate. You can donate by going to to our GoFundMe campaign (www.gofundme.com/teen-action-program) or call our office at (731) 612-5002.
Despite the money problems and failures, we as an organization have had success as well. The most recent success was this past July during an event called the Gospel Alive “Desperate My World Needs You”. I was able to setup a vending table during this event and showcase what we have to offer, and there was a large expression of interest from people and very generous donation of $30.50. This one event has brought many new connections that will soon breed new things to come.
So life as President/Founder is hard but great, living this life has given me so much knowledge. I can still use your help though; together we can accomplish so much more. Just as a chain is stronger with more than one link, so are we. Will join in the cause?
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