How many people have you known like Myra?
Three years from living in your car to building a 2-story home?
It’s almost unheard of for a person to achieve that, but it happens regularly because of an organization that Carol Kallendorf, PhD and I founded 15 years ago, called Dream Come True. Three years ago Myra and her daughter were sleeping in their car, but Myra had a dream to escape the intergenerational poverty that she had lived in all of her life. When she presented her dream to the Dream Come True Foundation, we agreed to support her dream.
Here’s how it worked for Myra:
- She told us about her dream and what she had already done to achieve it.
- Dream Come True gave her a mentoring program where she had someone always available to help her sort through issues and problems of achieving her dreams so she could continue on to succeed.
- Myra received financial help from Dream Come True so she could focus on her studies and not have to work as many as three part-time jobs as many of our Dream Achievers have done.
- She received books and tuition from an organization, CAPITAL Idea, led by Steve Jacobs and Eva Rios-Lleverino.
- Through hard work and following her Dream, Myra graduated as a Registered Nurse, with huge opportunities to serve others and earn good wages.
- BCL, an organization led by Dream Come True Board member, Raquel Valdez Sanchez, that supports home ownership, enabled Myra to become a homeowner. She is now finishing the construction of a two-story home in Austin, Texas. A far cry from living in a car.
Myra is achieving her dream after 3 years, the average time Dream Achievers need to go from poverty to a solid middle-class lifestyle, and giving back to others who have dreams.
The Dream Come True Foundation has been blessed with amazing leadership. Committed and talented board members, Heather Bailey, chairman; Sam Myers, past president; and Jessica Sager, have led the organization to success, when it would have otherwise been doomed. Without these people, there would be no Dream Come True.
Bob Riazzi, Executive Director and treasurer Ronnie Dittmar, CPA, have been key to the success of Dream Come True. They have created structure and strategy to continue.
For Carol and me this has been a work to prove the ability of people with a dream to achieve. It has been what we and our company, Delta, Inc., have done to give back. Carol and I have been recognized as “Legends of Austin,” by the organization, Recognize Good, and that humbles us because it includes many of our friends who have given back more than we have. Because of our friends, we are also about to be recognized with an official day by the Austin City Council.
We began Dream Come True with a question I asked Carol after driving around Austin, Texas observing hundreds of people with cardboard signs, begging, with the words, “Will Work for Food.” I came home and put the question to Carol, “Do any of these people really want to get out of poverty?” That began our quest, looking for people on the very edge of success who need our help.
I have always said that Dream Come True is not just about their dreams–those of the Dream Achievers. It’s about our dreams as well.
What is your dream? What is holding you back from achieving your wildest dreams? If you could achieve that dream, what would you need to do and to be?
How can we help you achieve your dreams? We’ve done it for others, and we can help you. I want to invite you to join the community of dreams, where our goal is to help you achieve your dream for your career and life. Send me an email at jspeer@delta-associates.com and let us help you plan a strategy for YOU to achieve your dreams. Join us as part of the Dream Come True Community where our dreams will become yours—either send me an email or visit the Dream Come True website (www.everyonesdreamcometrue.org) to see ways to get involved by mentoring (either in person or remotely), sharing your expertise, or making a contribution that will help the “next Myra” achieve the dream of a sustainable escape from poverty.
