Foundation offers youths hope for future
by Leslie Boyd, LBOYD@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published January 22, 2007 12:15 am

WEST ASHEVILLE — Ken and Ida Brown never expected to spend their retirement nurturing other people’s children, but five days a week, they welcome 18 children into a cramped apartment at Pisgah View.
The Browns fund the I Have a Dream Foundation in Asheville, which will follow this group of children through school, helping keep them on task and helping make sure they graduate. Those who do will get scholarships to go to college or vocational school.
“I thought we would fund this and other people would run it,” said Ken Brown, a retired investment banker. “But we found ourselves coming here to help and now we’re here every day. I love this.”
The children, all in first, second or third grade, arrive after school, a whirlwind of noise and activity bursting through the door and looking for a snack.
Most of the children don’t really understand the impact this program will have on their lives, said Jen Matthews, project coordinator.
“They love to come here, but I don’t think they’re quite old enough to understand the importance of doing well in school,” she said.
In the living room, Ida Brown showed Hallie Anderson, 9, how to use a single-lens reflex camera. Hallie didn’t understand the concept of film and used an entire roll in a few minutes.
“I love the look on their faces when they get it,” Ida Brown said. “It makes it so worthwhile.”
The foundation’s work began in New York in 1981, when Eugene Lang went to speak at a middle school and was told only 20 percent of the students were likely to graduate from high school. Lang promised the sixth-grade class that he would provide college tuition to every student in the class who finished high school.
Nearly all of them graduated. One of those original students now sits on the board of the I Have a Dream Foundation, one is a member of the New York City Council and one is Lang’s personal attorney.
Today, 65 projects like this one operate across the United States; some cities have several.
The Browns saw a feature on Lang on “60 Minutes” in 2004 and called him to talk about his work.
“We flew to New York to meet with him, and we decided to start this,” Ken Brown said.
The Browns fund the entire project here, which costs them about $80,000 a year. The Asheville Housing Authority contributes the space for the program and provides buses when the children take a field trip to a museum or cultural event.
The walls of the apartment are decorated with the children’s artwork. The former living room is furnished now with three long tables and about 20 folding chairs. Upstairs are a playroom, an art room and a newly outfitted computer room.
In the coming year, the Housing Authority will renovate a larger space so the program can double the number of children it serves.
“We’ll be looking for more funding, more volunteers,” Ken Brown said. “We want to expand into other communities where families need help.”
The Browns see the foundation’s work changing the entire community surrounding it.
“The children planted flowers in the spring,” he said. “They made Christmas gifts for all of the elderly residents here. It was quite a scene: all the kids walking through Pisgah View in their Santa hats.”
The noise in the apartment never stops from the time the children arrive until they leave, not even during homework time as children read aloud to volunteers or get help working out math problems.
Usually, there are enough volunteers to work one-on-one with the children, who often groan at having to read another two or three pages or do a couple more math problems.
“I don’t like to read,”
8-year-old Te’Quan Clark whined, slouching in his chair.
But after a few moments, he sat up straight and started again.
If not for the program, he likely would have put down his book for a less challenging activity, Ken Brown said. He likely would have fallen behind and eventually given up on his education.
 

Click here to view the word document