I logged in this evening to check my messages and I saw that I received a friend request from a
sister named Beverly Brewster. I didn't know her but her profile photo was so beautiful that I was moved to check out her other photos (something I almost NEVER do). I saw that she is a Curvy Diva and decided to google her to see if I could find out any more about her. What I found out was simply amazing and I wanted to share....check this article out from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:Woman Works to "Touch a Generation"
Beverly Brewster grew up in a place not much better than the public housing complexes people like to call "the projects." Sure, it was their own place, but two adults and six children had to squeeze into the one-bedroom home. Her father, a high school dropout, and her mother longed for a better life. He enrolled in a program to become an air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic, and her mother returned to college, got a degree in education and eventually a teaching job with the Atlanta public school system.
That changed everything for the Brewsters. They bought a home on the southeastern side of the city: four bedrooms, two baths, a family room and a basement. It was more than anything they could've imagined while living in the Thomas community of Birmingham.
"We didn't know how to act," Brewster remembered the other day.
The good life, though, was short-lived for Beverly.
At age 21, she became a single mom struggling to make ends meet. Her family grew but her income didn't.
Following her parents' example, she persevered, working her way up the ranks at AT&T, where she is now a senior manager.
"I had to do whatever was morally and legally right to help my kids," Brewster said, "the way my parents had done for me. And I did that."
She volunteered in the community, ministering to jail and prison inmates and nursing-home residents. And when she worked the concessions at Falcon games, her earnings were donated to church groups, youth baseball teams and schools.
She was headed to AT&T's downtown office on June 3, 2003, when a woman drove her car straight into Brewster's Mercedes-Benz, sending her to the hospital with a badly injured left shoulder.
Brewster's insurance company suggested she sue and she did, winning $19,000 in November 2006.
Brewster decided to buy a new car and tucked the money away in a savings account.
And then, she said, "I had a dream."
Sometime during the night on Jan. 27, 2007, a succession of dark images and emotions played in her subconscious, where Brewster's entire family lived in the projects. She heard noises — gunshots and people crying out for help. She felt a heavy burden, heavier than anything she had ever felt.
A voice spoke, telling her that God had given each of us gifts and talents. If you can identify them, the gifts would lead the way to a better life.
"Touch one, touch a generation," a voice whispered in her head after she awoke.
Brewster shared her dream the next day with her mother and tried to forget about it. But she couldn't. That night, she dreamed of making a documentary of life in the projects and what was possible if people identified their talents and committed to changing their lives.
At 53, she had no idea how to make a documentary but she knew someone who worked for a production company. She hesitated for an entire month, but the dream haunted her.
She picked up the phone and told the woman about the dream and the documentary she wanted to film. In April, the two of them drew up a plan and sent out a call for people living in public housing to share their stories. It would cost Brewster all of the settlement plus $7,000 more to produce the documentary. They filmed from June into October. Now just weeks away from the planned April premiere in Atlanta, Brewster said she hopes to one day distribute "Touch One, Touch a Generation" (www.T1TG.com) nationwide.
She has always helped people, now she wants to do it in a bigger way, starting with families who want to move out of public housing.
To that end, she has requested nonprofit status for a National Leadership Group to set up seminars to help people identify their gifts, find housing and jobs, but mostly to raise awareness about the impact of poverty on generations of people.
At first, she wasn't sure how to do that either. But, Brewster said, "when God gives you something to do, he gives you the tools to do it."
Simply Amazing. Make sure you all check out her site...it deserves your attention.Touch one, touch a generation."Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. "
No comments:
Post a Comment