Who Are The Forgotten?

Posted by admin on January 25th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized

In December 2006 my life was rocked when my mom died.

She had battled depression and in the end her death was a clouded mystery. I thought back to the morning years earlier when she tried to commit suicide, the lock down facilities that followed, and the battle she fought physically, emotionally and spiritually until her final breath. I guess you could say that after all the years I had grown used to the fact that her depression would never go away. You might even say I spent my life traveling to the poorest places in the world to help those in need as my search for answers. To be honest, in the end I questioned if her life was simply another forgotten story.

When I returned to a city dump in the Philippines in early 2007 and reunited with the families in Sitio Veterans my mission to remember the forgotten had become even more personal. My mom’s death fueled my desire to leave a legacy that would make her proud. As I stood next to a girl named Hazel amidst tin shanties and an overwhelming stench of trash I knew Forgotten Stories would be more than a cause driven company that helped those in need, it would be a community who remembered and fought for the forgotten.

Why am I sharing this with you?

It took a few years for the vision of Forgotten Stories to become clear as a result of one life altering circumstance. I had to make a choice. I could either ignore the tugging in my heart to make a difference in the midst of personal pain or I could embrace it and watch as lives were changed. That’s really what it’s all about. That’s what the One For One Campaign, the Unbreakable record, and The Invitation DVD/CD are meant to achieve. They are simply messages that move people to action, to make a difference, to reach out to those in need and to remember the forgotten who just might be right next door.