Circle of Friends

You ask, how can I help with this work? You can help by establishing a Founding Family Circle of Friends. What is a Circle of Friends? The concept is simple. We all need help from time to time. Whether we call the source of our help Circle of Friends, Giving Circle, Church Family, Immediate or Extended Family, the essence of the concept is living our lives for other people.

Let us tell you about a Circle of Friends that helped an orphaned girl in Troy, New York back in 1920 and how their help touched hundreds of thousands of people in Tennessee.

Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown died in Nashville, Tennessee, USA in 2004. The following information was taken from a newspaper obituary of her life. Dr. Brown started her distinguished life as an illegitimate child. She was born in a boarding house in Philadelphia. When she was 5 months old, her mother put her in what is now a private facility called Vanerhyden Hall, then called the Troy Orphan Asylum. There, Dorothy was one of six black children out of 250.

In an earlier interview with a newspaper reporter she was quoted as saying, “I grew up at a time when people said black kids couldn’t learn because they’re dull and stupid.”

The reporter went on to report, every two weeks, the asylum had ‘visitor’s day’. Week after week, Dorothy was the only child who had no visits. The superintendent finally leaned on people in his Presbyterian church to supply the girl with visitors. They were Dorothy’s first Circle of Friends. Years later, as a prominent surgeon, Dr. Brown would give credit for her career to the kindness of the many people who cared for her, raised money for her education and gave her a place to stay, often when they barely knew her.

She went on to say, “As I look through the details of my life, the footprints of God are evident.”Her mother reappeared and removed Dorothy from the orphanage. Dorothy ran away from her mother five times, always returning to the orphanage. The newspaper reported, at age 15, she ran away for good and enrolled in Troy High. Asked by school officials on her first day for her address, she had to tell them she didn’t have one.

The principal arranged for her to stay with a family he knew, Samuel Wesley and Lola Redmon, foster parents who at times had as many as 13 kids in their home. We see another Circle of Friends helping Dorothy, along her way. Dorothy Brown graduated from Troy High at the top of her class in 1937. She then went to work doing domestic labor. One of her employers was in a Methodist women’s group looking for the right young lady to sponsor for a college scholarship. In September of that year, they dispatched the hard-working orphan girl to North Carolina, to what was then Bennett College for Women. Another Circle of Friends helped Dorothy when she needed help. She graduated second in her class at Bennett in 1941. Pearl Harbor was attacked later that year, and for the war effort Dorothy Brown was dispatched to Cornell University for special training on how to inspect ordnance and weaponry.

She began medical school at Meharry Medical School in 1944. When she nearly ran out of money at one point, the Troy Conference of the Women’s Society of Christian Service pitched in to help her. Still another Circle of Friends helped Dorothy. Dr. Brown never married. In 1957 she broke more barriers by adopting a little girl, whom she named Lola (after her foster mother) Denise and called “Lodie.” She recalled her foster family in an interview that week: “I guess maybe that’s the reason I felt, in a way, that I wanted to do something for someone once I was able,” she said. Dr. Brown summed up her life by saying, “We should live to do for others.”

You can help FFCF raise money for the children and their new families in two ways. First, you can establish a ‘Founding Family Circle of Friends’ at your work, church, club or with the people with whom you play golf or tennis. You can have your meetings at lunch or you can plan special occasions or you can meet for tea after work. So, the first thing you need to do is establish a Circle of Friends by telling your friends about Founding Family and our work. We can see many advantages to establishing your own Circle of Friends, one of which is the positive physical and mental health that is promoted by friendship and helping children and maybe even traveling to China and sightseeing and also visiting an orphanage. (More details later about a possible FFCF tour in the spring of 2006.) We can assure you that it will change your life and the lives of your friends.

The second thing you can do for FFCF’s children and adopting families is figure out how your Circle of Friends’ can raise money. We want you to think of fun ways to raise money. You can have a company golf tournament. Northwest Airlines has organized a golf tournament for one of the orphanages that we visited last year. You could even include your customers, if you own a business, and show them that your business has a 'heart.'

You could organize Founding Family Baby Showers in each of your churches. We can supply you information that would explain the reason for the event. You would supply your own postage and refreshments. Instead of bringing a gift your guest would bring a contribution for the children. And by the way, everyone that made a donation would get a tax deduction by giving to our 501(c)3 foundation. Just think what a positive experience you could be a part of, just like the women’s Methodist group did that helped young Dorothy Brown get started on her medical career.

You might ask how much money does Founding Family need to help an adopting family. Our grant families aren’t wealthy. Our goal is to help public servant families. The cost of adoption ranges from $15,000 to $25,000. It is our plan to provide grants from $1,000 to $2,000. We hope that each Circle of Friends could support one or two families. FFCF has funded 2 Grants since May 16, 2005 and we plan to fund other grants this year.From time to time we plan to communicate to you the needs of children with medical problems. Founding Family would like to establish a medical grant fund of $100,000 each year for every foreign country where Founding Family establishes a supportive relationship with an orphanage. We have such a relationship with two China orphanages and we have already met with a businessman in Atlanta who goes to Guatemala and supports a large orphanage. If the Americans that operate that orphanage have children with special medical needs we will supply funds to help those children.

Sarah and John Rummage were coming back from London this winter and both remarked to each other how starting on this journey of helping the children made them feel like they were 24 years old, starting our lives over again. They feel better today, mentally and physically, than they have in years. Dr. Dorothy Brown was correct when she said that “we should live to do for others,” not only for what it does for the children and families we help, but what it does for us as individuals. Dr. Brown lived to be 90 years old, living for others. The children need your help.

Email us at Circle@FoundingFamily.org and we will get you started.