I Am A Bridge

BRIDGES is fortunate to exist in a community with people who want to make a difference. These people are bridges - bridges to peace, bridges to hope, and bridges to a better future.

They help BRIDGES reach thousands of individuals every year in support of our mission - to build a community of leaders to advance racial, economic, educational and environmental justice. They are people of all ages and from all walks of life, here to make our world a better place.

Bridge Builders Graduate Means To Shine 

For Emilee Lewis, the essence of being a Bridge Builder can be found in a simple T-shirt - the one she wore as a Silver Steeler during her junior conference more than two years ago.

"Seeing it's a gray T-shirt, it doesn't really mean much," says Emilee, a newly minted Bridge Builders® alumnus and senior at Germantown High School. "But when I look at it, it's a representation of everything I've been through. I think that's what Bridge Builders does. It takes a normal T-shirt - a normal, ordinary person and it shakes you up and polishes you and makes you shiny and silver. And you can go do great things with it."

Like a lot of other Bridge Builders, Emilee is already doing great things. She served two years on the Bridge Builders Leadership Board and is the outgoing board co-chair, along with Jeremy Cooper. She's on the committee planning the upcoming Bridge Builders Alumni Weekend.

AND she had the honor of addressing the crowd that gathered to celebrate this year's graduating class of Bridge Builders on April 28. She reminded the grads of the lessons they’ve learned about honesty, trust - and perception.

"I've learned that with Bridge Builders, brown becomes bronze, orange becomes gold and gray becomes silver," she said to the crowd. "Now, take what you’ve learned here and go out and do something with it.”

She was born in Manassass, Va., and lived briefly in Charlotte, N.C., but Emilee and her family have been in the Memphis area since before she started first grade.

She's headed for the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor this fall, where she'll study political science. After college, she may go on to study law and could very well end up back in Memphis.

"This is my home," she says. "I love the city and I've grown to love it even more through the program. I'm sad to leave because everything I love is here. I could definitely see me coming back."

While her long-term future is undecided, one thing's for sure - she's a Bridge Builder to the core. It started during that first week of junior conference.

"I'd heard that it was fun. That was all I knew," she said. "When I got there I was like, 'This is isn't what I expected.' But I was really happy that it wasn't what I expected. Because it was so much more."

She remembers exactly when it turned from fun to foundational.

"It was when we were all blindfolded and we had to the step to the left if we'd gone through certain things and step to the right if we hadn't. By the end, the room was quiet - we were all looking at each other to see how far apart we were with things like that. We all sat in a circle and shared our stories - what made us who we are."

That circle was Emilee's turning point.

"I'd never done anything like that before with my closest friends. So to do it with these people, who I hadn't known - it was amazing," she continues. "I still remember almost everything that everyone said around the circle."

Of course, junior conference ends and the program shifts from looking in to looking out. Emilee says that Bridge Builders took her out of Germantown and showed her the rest of Memphis, the good and the bad. She loves the people, she loves the places and she's much more aware.

"When I watch the news and hear about things happening in different parts of the city, it's relevant to me now," she said. "Bridge Builders makes you want to help people who maybe don't live next door to you, but they're still your family."

Her two years in the program transformed her profoundly, she says.

"I can't imagine that sophomore having the ability to speak in front of people," she said. "I feel really confident when I'm talking about Bridge Builders. And I feel that I have common ground with people I didn't know before."

Emilee admits that advancing justice is a tough challenge. But she says BRIDGES and Bridge Builders are up to the task.

"People do actually care what youth are saying," she said. "By saying that BRIDGES promotes justice, that's completely accurate. They empower you to speak out about things - whatever the issue may be. For me, it's looking at the injustices around me and saying, 'What can I do? What can I say, that'll make a difference?'"

For Memphis, the more young people asking that question, the better.

Check out Emilee's video below!

Trustee believes BRIDGES makes Memphis better

Saying Robin Orgel wants to make Memphis a better place is an understatement. One of the newest members of the BRIDGES Board of Trustees, she's a Memphis native and cares deeply about her city. The mother of two Bridge Builders (and another in waiting), Robin sees BRIDGES as a city treasure.

"BRIDGES shows our youth that Memphis is a good place and that they can do lots of good things in Memphis."

The BRIDGES love runs in the family, too. Her husband, Billy Orgel, served three terms on the BRIDGES board, the last one as chair. And you may have heard of him elsewhere these days - as head of the Shelby County Unified School Board. They both believe in the public schools, in Memphis - and in the unique role BRIDGES plays in the city.

"Before I ever had a child involved, I understood the mission and what BRIDGES was trying to do," Robin says. "It's important to us because it's important to Memphis."

Robin attended Lausanne Collegiate School. The only time she's lived away from Memphis was while  studying education at the University of Georgia in Athens, and for one year after she graduated, working as a teacher in Atlanta. It was there that she met Billy, also a Memphis native, and they soon returned to their Bluff City home.

Robin taught third grade for several years at Grahamwood School, but has been a full-time mom since the birth of her eldest son, Benjamin. A Lausanne graduate now studying at the University of Texas, Benjamin is a Bridge Builders® alum, and his younger sister, Megan, is a junior at Lausanne and a current Bridge Builder. Her youngest child, Hannah, is in 7th grade at White Station Middle School and is destined to be a Bridge Builder, Robin says.

"Every parent should want their child to be exposed to Bridge Builders," she says. "It's really Memphis - it reflects the variety of everyone you come in contact with."

She's positive that her children are better for being exposed to BRIDGES-style learning.

"I think it was very eye-opening for them, sitting in the groups and the meetings and being with kids who have one parent or who have no parents," Robin said. "They really realized how hard it is for some people, and I think it helped them appreciate some more of what they have. It was a positive learning experience. It's important to know that everything's not so perfect. And it's important to know how to get along with people who are not exactly like you."

But at the core, Robin says, her kids learned more about similarities than differences.

"You're put in a situation where everyone has on T-shirts and everybody's the same," she said. "And they really got that when they left after that first week. It was good."

And it's the act of building on those similarities that both Robin and her husband Billy believe will sustain and improve Memphis as a place their kids - and other peoples' kids - will want to come back to.

"I think BRIDGES is important because it involves kids and families from all over the city and it teaches them to work together and it teaches them the importance of community service," she said. "Memphis is a great place and it has so much to offer. Not everyone understands what it means to be a part of Memphis. But I want my children to come back here. I want grandchildren here. I want them here."

Watch and listen to Robin explain her passion for Memphis and BRIDGES in the video below. 

New Leader Ready to Get Schooled on BRIDGES

There's a long list of reasons why Cynthia Ham decided to come to BRIDGES to serve as its new president - she was ready for a change, she's intrigued by the BRIDGES mission, she wants to spend the next chapter of her work life giving back. But it's probably easier to sum it up in four words - Cynthia Ham loves Memphis.

"Memphis is one of those places that gets in your soul," said the former Chief PR Officer for local firm archer>malmo. "It seeps into you. With all its faults, there are so many good things about it. I think the number one thing is its authenticity. We're not easily impressed by other places and people. We're about who we are - the good, the bad and the ugly. And I like that - the edginess and the authenticity."

Her knowledge of and love of Memphis runs deep - she grew up here and has lived here most of her life. Besides past positions running the Beale Street Historic District and the Memphis In May International Festival, Cynthia was a chief architect of the Memphis 101 curriculum, now employed by the Leadership Academy.

"When this position came open, it almost just called my name," Cynthia said. "I really felt like this is where I should be next."

Taking a look at where she's been, you get an idea why she's at BRIDGES now. She was born in Columbia, South Carolina but has lived in Memphis since 1960. She attended Cromwell Elementary, Wooddale High and the University of Memphis, where she earned a degree in journalism/advertising and public relations.

She worked in sales and guest relations at Libertyland, spent a few years in Nashville working for Opryland, USA, helped to open Mud Island River Park and then spent two years as Vice President of Marketing for the Beale Street Historic District. For the next 10 years, she served as executive director of the Memphis In May International Festival, where she oversaw the revival of the then-failing Beale St. Music Festival and helped to more than double annual revenue.

 Her stint in Nashville, she says, was a blip on the radar.

"That was a really bad time for Memphis," she said. "The Chamber of Commerce had almost gone bankrupt.  Downtown was boarded up. I didn't have much hope at that time, so when I had this offer to go to Nashville I thought, 'I'm out of here forever.' Then when I was asked to come back to Memphis to open Mud Island, I couldn't leave, ever again."

She spent the next 15 years as a Principal and Chief PR officer at archer>malmo. While there, she created, with the help of John Malmo, Memphis 101, a crash course in the history, politics and culture of Memphis, now licensed to the Leadership Academy.

She says she's impressed by the board engagement at BRIDGES and amazed by the staff and its work. She admits to having a lot to learn about BRIDGES and its nuances.

"Obviously I know in the big scheme of things how and why BRIDGES is so important," Cynthia said. "But I need to understand it on a more granular level. And a more emotional level so that I can then tell those stories to others and hopefully build our constituency to be broader and deeper."

She's thrilled to be working for an organization dedicated to equipping young people to make change in Memphis - now and in the future.

"The fact that we can envision these young people continuing their engagement from the level it is now - not in another city, but staying right here in Memphis to work for change and to know one another well enough  that they can effect change, that's a pretty exciting thing to think about, she says. "Because it's the engagement that keeps them here."

Watch and listen as Cynthia talks Memphis and BRIDGES in the video below.

Frankie Dakin is a Restorer - and a BRIDGE

(Frankie's story is part of our latest Annual Report for 2010-2011. Download a digital copy.)

For Frankie Dakin, deciding to take part in Bridge Builders® was more about strengthening his college application than learning how to be a leader and advance justice. At the time he saw himself as a pretty progressive guy. He soon learned that the experience was going to be a lot more.

“Before Bridge Builders I considered myself to be against many of the ‘isms’—racism, sexism, classism—but after I realized that it wasn’t enough to passively resist negative and bigoted views,” Frankie said. “Bridge Builders challenged me to critically reflect on my views and ways. I realized that if you are not actively fighting against those forces, then you are actively perpetuating them, and there is no way around that.”

After graduating from both from the program and from Millington Central in 2010, Frankie discovered a newfound sense of pride in, and responsibility for, his hometown.

“Its an amazing thing how Memphis is today in light of all of the negative events that have happened here,” he said. “But there is still plenty of work and reconciliation to be done. I'm proud to be one of the many who are dedicated to the betterment of our already amazing community—and I believe Bridge Builders laid that foundation for me.”

That foundation makes for a busy life. He’s a member of the BRIDGES College Corps and a Bridge Builders Change intern coordinator, at least when he’s not studying neuroscience and urban studies at Rhodes College.

He’s a member of the Bonner Scholars program, which is aimed at developing students that are passionate about community action into advocates for social justice, and he serves as Recruitment and Philanthropy Chair for the Epsilon Sigma chapter of Sigma Nu. He’s also President Pro-Tempore of Rhodes Rebuilds, the alternative Spring and Fall Break program that sends over 40 students every break to New Orleans and Joplin, MO, to aid in reconstruction and community building.

If all that weren’t enough, he was recently appointed Chairman of the Deangelo Williams Foundation, and is currently helping organize and promote a celebrity softball tournament to take place at AutoZone Park in May.

In short, Frankie lives the lessons he learned in Bridge Builders every day.

My name is Frankie Dakin and I am a bridge because I have the opportunity to strive to live a life of creative altruism.