The Hopes and Dreams Academy:     

“To positively and powerfully affect the lives  of San Diego youth by sharing love, hope and compassion with them through hands on experiences with leaders in our community”

Here’s some pretty cool news!  The big Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon is having a HOPES AND DREAMS ACADEMY float in this year’s parade.   How about that?   I can already see some of the Hopes and Dreams kids smiling as they wave to everyone on top of the float. 

Hey check this out!

So, I rsvp to an event on Facebook for my friend Ryan Gauger.  Ryan uses a wheelchair and his mom and friends I grew up with are putting on a benefit concert for Ryan in a few weeks to help raise money for a new wheelchair.  When you click on the yes button to go, it quickly appears on your friend’s Facebook feed.  A man named Chi-Wei Ho saw that I was going and called me saying he works in the wheelchair business and wanted to see if he could help.  I put him in touch with Ryan’s mom and now Ryan gets a FREE  new wheelchair just like that.  There will still be a benefit concert to get money for the much needed upgrades.  BUT, isn’t that really cool?  

I never thought I would say the following in a sentence.   I’m working together with the DEA and Sheriff’s department on the community forum that KUSI is wanting to run in a few weeks about the escalating use of oxycontin and heroin in our schools.

This Tuesday, we are meeting at KUSI to show them a quick presentation on all the stats.  From the presentation we will then work together on outlining the show and what we need to do to bring awareness to everyone in San Diego especially parents, students, and teachers.  I’m very excited about this and I am honored to work with Karin Murphy on this in honor of her son Seth and Seth’s Foundation.

In August, Clark Bartram and I will be speaking at juvenile hall at least once.  We’re also talking with juvenile hall about the possibility of talking to the girls that are locked up.  I would love to do that.

We are also working out details to take the Hopes and Dreams Academy kids to the Olympic training facility in Chula Vista along with cooking with Joe Busalacchi and a trip to Ocean Enterprises.

Clark and I are very proud of this new website.  We’re going over every area of the site to make it more interesting and easy to navigate.

Lisa Minjares is our web guru and she’s the best.

If you think you know a kid that may need some direction please email me littletommy@san.rr.com and we will talk to you and figure it all out.

Thanks for coming to the site and thanks for reading this blog and thanks for supporting The Hopes and Dreams Academy!

In a way, I like to say that it was Amber Dubois who actually started The Hopes and Dreams Academy.

I was asked to help coordinate the Amber Dubois public memorial service set for Saturday March 27, 2010.  For the previous two weeks, I had many friends and new friends along with Amber’s family meeting day and night working out all the details for the service at Escondido High School.

The day before, on Friday March 26, 2010, I needed some volunteers to help set up some folding chairs on the football field.  I put out a plea on my Facebook page and a couple of people in the area came by and helped out.  Two of the people that came out were Clark and Anita Bartram.   They were very nice and it was a special moment with all the volunteers setting up the chairs for Amber.

Over the next few days, I became friends with Clark and Anita.  Within a week or two, they even visited my mom in Chula Vista.  Clark is a fitness model and expert that you would recognize if you saw him on a fitness magazine.  Anita is also a fitness trainer.  With me going up and down with my weight it was natural to talk to them about working out.  I think they equally wanted to help me lose my belly.  Currently, I run bleachers with Anita a lot during the week.    

NOTE:  This is Clark and Anita.  Check out the woman in the background.  It looks like she’s growing out of Clark’s ear.

Well, I invited Clark to speak with me at a Foster kid educational seminar in early April where we spoke to kids about making right choices. I thought it would be cool to have Clark there to talk about fitness. At the event, I also brought Richard, a buddy of mine that did 28 years in state prisons in California.  Richard gave a great talk to the kids about how he made a bad choice one night that landed him in prison for almost 30 years.  Little did I know that Clark, who I thought would talk about doing push ups and stuff had a very inspirational story as well on all the obstacles he had to overcome to be where he’s at today.  

Soon after that, I get a call from Anita saying to get a hold of Clark.  Clark had an idea to run by me.  So, I meet Clark at a place called the Pita King in Escondido and he tells me that we should partner up together and start a new program that does this stuff regularly.  He said we should take under privileged kids and show them places that could inspire them to have goals in life and to tell them through our own experience how and why they should make good choices.  I loved it and I remember driving away excited.

I was on Escondido Blvd. right in front of Lourdes’ Mexican restaurant getting ready to take my car in to fix a tail light at this garage across the street when I thought of the name HOPE AND DREAMS.  I remembered Brent King at Chelsea’s service saying take that anger and turn it in to hope.  So, I called Clark and said let’s call this program HOPE AND DREAMS.  He liked it but said, ”Shouldn’t it be HOPES AND DREAMS?”

We actually debated for about 2-3 days on if it is correct to say HOPE AND DREAMS or HOPES AND DREAMS.  We did decide on Hopes and Dreams, but every once in a while, I feel I should have fought more for HOPE AND DREAMS.  

My friend Jamie along with Lori and Matt all went to Africa in July for 10 days.  When they came back, I went through some of the pictures they posted on Facebook.  I got the chills when I saw this painting by their friend Scott who did this for the Queen.

In less than 3 months after coming up with the idea and name,  we have been to juvenile hall twice to talk to the kids.  Superbowl winner, Gary Plummer has come along with us each time. We even have a RAP SONG as a theme to HOPES AND DREAMS peformed by an artist from New Mexico named TEST.  You can listen to the song on the home page of this new website.

We have also taken kids from Monarch School, Foster Care, Becky’s House, and a few kids from listeners of the Jeff and Jer Showgram that needed some direction to STU SEGALL PRODUCTIONS, KFMB-TV AND RADIO,  TAYLOR GUITARS, and into Little Italy to 5 Busalacchi restaurants. 

On Wednesday July 28th, 50 families of some these agencies are going to the Padre game.  Adrian Gonzales and my friend Michele Blasko helped to arrange that.

In August, we are planning to take kids on a tour of Ocean Enterprises and a day of snorkeling and Joe Busalacchi is inviting us back to teach the kids and their parents how to cook like an Italian chef.   Both  Joe and the owner of Ocean Enterprises, Werner Kurn have inspirational stories to tell these kids.

Clark and I are constantly figuring out cool little trips to take kids.  For each trip we try to find new kids to take and new agencies to work with in San Diego.  We can use some of your suggestions. I think once we get this down, I can work with friends in other cities to do the same.  Maybe one day Hopes and Dreams can be worldwide. 

Personally, I have also got involved with the latest epidemic in San Diego during the start of Hopes and Dreams that I hope to make part of our program.  Our children in San Diego are getting hooked on oxycontin and heroin.  NO KIDDING. These drugs are in our schools and in towns that normally are not thought of as drug areas.  Poway, Carmel Valley, Rancho Penasquitos, Fallbrook, and east county are HUGE areas in town that have children that LOOK like all american kids, but they are strung out on OXY and/or heroin.   The biggest hit area is all along the 56 freeway.  NO KIDDING!

On Monday July 26th, I met with the news director at KUSI, Steve Cohen and told him about this problem and epidemic in our San Diego schools.  It took about 2 minutes for him to put out his hand and shake my hand and said, ‘Let’s do this, let’s bring awareness to San Diego.”

So, in a few weeks, we will have a televised community forum about oxycontin and heroin in our San Diego schools that I get to co-produce. 

In my opinion, THE HOPES AND DREAMS ACADEMY will help ALL children and young adults that need direction. Yes, our mission statement says children that are under privileged, but it is my thinking that we will not turn any kid or parent away that comes to us for help.

I produce the Jeff and Jer Showgram and I can’t wait to get back on the air, on that day, I will be very proud, but I am equally as proud to be part of this, The Hopes and Dreams Academy.   I smile thinking that we have a new website for you to see.   

I do want to thank Lisa  Minjares.  Lisa ran the website department at KFMB when the Jeff and Jer Showgram was at Star 100.7.  She’s the best in the business and she quickly said YES to helping us out.  She worked on the website and actually designed the logo as well.

The logo you see below has an H-D-A in the middle of the circle.  H-D-A- for THE HOPES AND DREAMS ACADEMY. You see an opening on the top of the circle.  That opening represents letting people in to your heart and trusting.

When I showed my son this logo, Eddie said, “That’s sick!”   He also says the logo would be cool on skateboard gear and t-shirts.  For you NON HIP people like me, SICK means GOOD.  

So, this is how it all started!  We’re still in the early stages setting up the program.  Our website will always be fresh and will change constantly. We still have to add the Busalacchi stuff.

I am so happy and proud!

I like to tell Clark and Anita that Amber Dubois introduced us.  I also like how the name was inspired by Chelsea King’s dad.     

We even have a white background version too!