Making a Difference is Something Each of Us Can Do!

May 2010

Sometimes we meet people that change the way we think about the way we live our lives. It might be in a sermon that we hear, a remarkable teacher we happen to have or a fantastic book we stumble upon. It may be even in an unexpected encounter with another person equally driven and purposeful in their energy and life’s work as oneself. That is exactly what happened when I had the pleasure of meeting a really neat guy that goes by Barton Brooks. Now, some of you may already know him, but if you don’t, you might know about his organization Global Colors. Still, if you read O Magazine, you might even have heard of his Guerilla Aid. He is really an amazing man.

Barton Brooks is an international aid administrator and founder of the nonprofit volunteer organization Global Colors. His mission is to establish sustainable grassroots humanitarian aid projects around the world without the subjugating factors of time or previous experience. He calls this style of work “Guerrilla Aid.” For more information, visit www.GlobalColors.org and www.GuerrillaAid.com. Barton and I met in the most unexpected way. My phone rang and Scott Brogan from The Brilliant Lectures series was hosting Barton who had just returned from a two-month trip to Haiti. Barton was speaking to students and doing interviews on Fox News and wanted to meet me. Hello.... can we say “honored?”... Anyway, we set up a coffee date and from the moment I laid eyes on him, we immediately connected.

Barton has a down to earth sense about what is important. And yes, sending in an annual check to some big organization to assist people in need is, well, important; however, Barton likes to get in there, actually do things himself and make a difference in his own way. His success as a broker, television producer, and other various careers has allowed him to live high and worry none.

Recently, when he was traveling in Angkor Thom, he and a friend saw some children playing and wanted to make them smile. They began dancing around, which made the children giggle, and they even played some football. After an impromptu afternoon with these children, they took a few pictures and when Barton looked at them, “There it was, the photo that would change my life. In my eyes, it was a perfect picture. It was perfectly composed, with perfect smiles, perfect color, perfect children, and sheer joy. They were, however, surrounded by extreme poverty. I instantly felt connected to them and responsible to them.”

That is how Barton started what he calls his Guerilla Aid, a program that offers ideas to travelers on how everyone can, in their own small way, make a difference. After hearing him speak about his travels and all that he has done to make a difference, I thought back to a trip Brian and I had taken to St. Marten many years ago. There had been quite a few issues with that trip, like the beginning of a ruptured appendix at the airport with Brian, and we even had a hurricane set in as soon as we arrived! After those “small” issues passed, and we were still, in my opinion, “stuck” on the island, we drove out of our picture perfect resort to discover what the “rest of the story really was.” Children barefooted and living in poverty, playing with stick swords just a stone’s throw away from a resort catering to a completely different life. At the time, I remember watching them and had I not been so out of sorts with the entire crazy vacation, I might have offered to help them.

In his mind, Barton lives by the motto that “if you change one life, you’ve changed the world.” Like minds think alike, and as I said, Barton and I “clicked.” I got to thinking about how he helps as he travels along all over the world. There’s the Batwa Pygmy people that live in Uganda. There are widows that need simple things - pots and pans to make food that they can sell and thus make a living for their family. Pots and pans that cost about 38 bucks! Are you reading this? Changing her life by buying her pots and pans! All Barton did was ask her what she needed! Her answer wasn’t a flat of water bottles or a year’s supply of RTE’s. No, she told him exactly what she needed, and there are so many other stories he recounted of similar stories. One of my favorites and dear to my heart is how he shows children how to care for a chicken, and in doing so, takes them and their family out of extreme poverty. A chicken costs what? Maybe 2 bucks? Geez.... It doesn’t take much to make a difference and that impact is lasting. And that, my friends, is how Barton Brooks performs what he calls Guerilla Aid!

That is also something to really think about over the next few months as we all plan and take our children on vacations. Think about just observing what is going on around you. Maybe it will be a shop owner that you strike up a conversation with and discover that you can help either while your there visiting or perhaps once you return home. Involve your children. They learn everything about how to be great givers to society under our care. They watch everything we do! I can think of countless Thanksgivings that we fed the homeless, and yes, keep doing that too! However, if you allow yourself to see the world around you, you just might discover that you, all by yourself, can make a huge difference in the life of a child or a family.Alisa with Barton Brooks of Global Colors

My great friend, Barton Brooks, has a comprehensive list of what I have mentioned and tried to explain as Guerilla Aid on his website. Here, taken from an interview for O Magazine is in his words exactly what that means. “Guerrilla Aid is a style of volunteerism that I define with the mantra behind my work: Just go somewhere, do something and teach others to do the same. Regardless of the amount of time you have to offer, zeros on your paycheck or previous working knowledge of international aid—you can make a difference!”

I challenge each of you this summer to doing just exactly that. Hope you have a wonderful spring and as I always say,
Take Care of You!