The Story of Encourage Me I'm Young...
Inspired by the Journey of Calvin T. Mann, President & Founder.
Written by: Heather Hetheru Miller.
It was the summer of 1992 and I took a job at a friend’s home day care center as a Child Care worker. I was 25 with a 3-year old son of my own; caring for about 12 kids from 1-5 years old. When you are a care giver, as a parent or just working with kids that age, you become very perceptive. You really develop your first set of super powers! You seem to develop a second-sense for what they need. In turn, they develop a trust in you to love them and to protect them from the things that they don’t understand or the things that scare them. I was not exempt! I took both their trust and my role very seriously.
The daycare was filled with children from the community. The center was placed centrally in the heart of Ferndale, MI. This would turn out to be one of the most important seasons of my life. Because this summer, birthed the beginning of Encourage Me I’m Young. It was a windy day in July 1992, when the words, “Encourage Me I’m Young”, blew open the door to the daycare center and literally to the 28 year journey of becoming EMIY Inc. There were important benchmarks along the way. But the most pivotal turn happened in the summer of 2004.
Now, at age 37, my life had changed its course and I was employed by Northwest Airlines. I was making a good living for myself and my family that had expanded to include a new marriage and 3 kids. Even as I worked every day, I knew it was more to me and for me. Because I believed myself to be a great amateur comedian, I thought I would try my hand in comedy. Everyone knows that life presents the best materials for jokes. So week after week, I searched for material and inspiration in the local paper, the Detroit News. As it turns out, I had found my inspiration, it just was not for comedy. I would find the beginning for my life’s commitment.
“Time is all we have to change who we are.” It would be my first quote that I would share with others. It would be one of the many epithets that an Encourage ME I’m Young shirts would brandish in the years to come. At that time, these were the words that comforted me as my heart shattered reading story after story of our children being senselessly murdered. Kids were dying on main streets, at home, in abandoned buildings, in cars, and even at school. These were all the places where kids were supposed to be safe and we yet were failing them. The kids dying were the ages of my kids. The ages of the kids that I came to love in the daycare center years prior. The ages of kids that I coached in high school just preparing to start their lives. These kids; OUR KIDs, lives were lost and we somehow were missing the urgency of their silent cries. Everywhere a kid died, I began to lay an EMIY shirt. I wanted them to know that I was listening and I would be the agent of change to hear their voices and those of other kids. We needed to change their narrative for other children and families.
I heard their silent cries louder than ever that year and every year since, I have spent my life obligated to do more to prevent the loss of our kids. Encourage Me I’m Young was never designed to be an organization. It was designed to be an answer to the silent cries of slain children to not let their death be in vain. Encourage Me I’m Young is a response to the wailings of parents, families and communities to do something NOW. Encourage Me I’m Young exists to encourage each child to choose a course of life for themselves and others. For adults those who wear the epithet to remember the value of the youth we once shared… and to choose LIFE for them. Make choices to protect them. Teach them. Prepare them. Believe in them. Because one day, they will be us and our voices will either echo or be silent to them.
In June of 2018, I laid the last of the 630 EMIY shirts place in memorial at the death sites kids. The last shirt number 630, was placed behind the abandoned building of Cooley High School, for the loss of my niece Jodi. By the end of the same year EMIY had served more than 15,800 kids of all ages, ethnicities, and family dynamics. Our message and direction is clear. We will continue, with urgency to prevent the lack of encouragement in children, families and communities. We are the change we need in our world because “Time is ALL we have to CHANGE who we ARE.”
Encourage Me I’m Young!
Written by: Heather Hetheru Miller.
It was the summer of 1992 and I took a job at a friend’s home day care center as a Child Care worker. I was 25 with a 3-year old son of my own; caring for about 12 kids from 1-5 years old. When you are a care giver, as a parent or just working with kids that age, you become very perceptive. You really develop your first set of super powers! You seem to develop a second-sense for what they need. In turn, they develop a trust in you to love them and to protect them from the things that they don’t understand or the things that scare them. I was not exempt! I took both their trust and my role very seriously.
The daycare was filled with children from the community. The center was placed centrally in the heart of Ferndale, MI. This would turn out to be one of the most important seasons of my life. Because this summer, birthed the beginning of Encourage Me I’m Young. It was a windy day in July 1992, when the words, “Encourage Me I’m Young”, blew open the door to the daycare center and literally to the 28 year journey of becoming EMIY Inc. There were important benchmarks along the way. But the most pivotal turn happened in the summer of 2004.
Now, at age 37, my life had changed its course and I was employed by Northwest Airlines. I was making a good living for myself and my family that had expanded to include a new marriage and 3 kids. Even as I worked every day, I knew it was more to me and for me. Because I believed myself to be a great amateur comedian, I thought I would try my hand in comedy. Everyone knows that life presents the best materials for jokes. So week after week, I searched for material and inspiration in the local paper, the Detroit News. As it turns out, I had found my inspiration, it just was not for comedy. I would find the beginning for my life’s commitment.
“Time is all we have to change who we are.” It would be my first quote that I would share with others. It would be one of the many epithets that an Encourage ME I’m Young shirts would brandish in the years to come. At that time, these were the words that comforted me as my heart shattered reading story after story of our children being senselessly murdered. Kids were dying on main streets, at home, in abandoned buildings, in cars, and even at school. These were all the places where kids were supposed to be safe and we yet were failing them. The kids dying were the ages of my kids. The ages of the kids that I came to love in the daycare center years prior. The ages of kids that I coached in high school just preparing to start their lives. These kids; OUR KIDs, lives were lost and we somehow were missing the urgency of their silent cries. Everywhere a kid died, I began to lay an EMIY shirt. I wanted them to know that I was listening and I would be the agent of change to hear their voices and those of other kids. We needed to change their narrative for other children and families.
I heard their silent cries louder than ever that year and every year since, I have spent my life obligated to do more to prevent the loss of our kids. Encourage Me I’m Young was never designed to be an organization. It was designed to be an answer to the silent cries of slain children to not let their death be in vain. Encourage Me I’m Young is a response to the wailings of parents, families and communities to do something NOW. Encourage Me I’m Young exists to encourage each child to choose a course of life for themselves and others. For adults those who wear the epithet to remember the value of the youth we once shared… and to choose LIFE for them. Make choices to protect them. Teach them. Prepare them. Believe in them. Because one day, they will be us and our voices will either echo or be silent to them.
In June of 2018, I laid the last of the 630 EMIY shirts place in memorial at the death sites kids. The last shirt number 630, was placed behind the abandoned building of Cooley High School, for the loss of my niece Jodi. By the end of the same year EMIY had served more than 15,800 kids of all ages, ethnicities, and family dynamics. Our message and direction is clear. We will continue, with urgency to prevent the lack of encouragement in children, families and communities. We are the change we need in our world because “Time is ALL we have to CHANGE who we ARE.”
Encourage Me I’m Young!