- This month on The SPARK, our theme is Rise Together.

We'll learn about a nonprofit bakery providing job training and wages for parents transitioning out of homelessness, a nonprofit helping high school students prepare for college and careers through mentoring, college prep counseling, career planning, and more, and a nonprofit foundation with a comprehensive platform helping entrepreneurs and musicians.

We'll also share a special moment from our SPARK Awards 2024.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The SPARK is provided by United Way of the Mid-South, EcOp, the Memphis Zoo, My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, and by First Tee Tennessee-Memphis.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea?

Inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way, so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park, and this is The SPARK.

They're a nonprofit bakery providing job training and wages to parents transitioning out of homelessness.

We're here with the Executive director of Lucy J's Bakery, Josh Burgess, and let's start out, give us an idea of where you're located and some background for Lucy J's Bakery.

- Good morning, we are located in the Crosstown Concourse.

That's a wonderful community here in the, kind of the north side of Midtown, the vertical village.

And we are happy to be a part of that.

We started here largely because it's close to the Dorothy Day House, but also it brings together this really awesome community.

We have a bunch of high school kids around all the time.

Some of them work here.

We have, you know, people that work in the building come here and music come here to do all kinds of different things.

So we are here and our mission is to hire as many people from the Dorothy Day House as we can.

We wanna provide job training, we want start everyone at $15 an hour and hopefully help them onto the next bigger and better thing while they work their way back into stable housing.

- For those who aren't familiar with Dorothy Day House, talk about Dorothy Day House of Memphis.

- The Dorothy Day House is a wonderful organization.

They currently have three houses that house three families, each house, at a time.

The families can stay in the house as long as they need to, average stay is still about six months, they basically cover the bills and help people save money and get whatever they need, whether it's, you know, job training here or better jobs or another job, whatever the case may be, as they work themselves back into a stable housing situation.

- So you are a bakery, so tease us with things like cinnamon rolls and beyond.

So talk about the items.

- We are definitely known for our cinnamon rolls.

We're also becoming known for our biscuits.

And actually in September, we're celebrating our seventh anniversary, and we're gonna do that by having biscuits every day instead of just on Saturday.

So it's a fresh buttermilk biscuit with a nice honey butter glaze on top.

And then we'll have sausage and bacon, or hopefully we'll have chicken here pretty soon.

But we're also, you know, we have a good chocolate chip cookie.

We make fresh croissants every morning.

We have croissant pockets which are square croissants that are filled with, you know, meat and cheese or fruit and vegetables, I mean fruit and cheese, that kind of stuff.

And then we can also do custom cookies, custom cakes, cheesecakes.

We have a lemon cheesecake right now, which is really good.

And we're hoping to roll out some cinnamon apple here pretty soon too.

- Talk about how Lucy J's Bakery is breaking down barriers, but also building community and a better understanding for individuals.

So talk about empathy, respect, and some of those pieces that play into what you're doing in the community.

- So we didn't really set out to make this neat little community we've made, but by introducing the high school students, they are able to help us cover some hours that a lot of the parents can't, a lot of the parents cannot cover, such as the afternoon or Saturday morning, the farmer's markets, and those, you know, those high school kids would not have met the parents that are working their way back into their stable housing situation.

And so they've become lifelong friends, some of them.

Auntie V is one of our main employees.

She still calls some of the high school students, I mean they're in college now, some of the college kids and, you know, they still keep in touch.

We are here in this building which has a wide variety of people every day, wide variety of, you know, race, gender, and economic classes and stuff.

So everyone comes in through the bakery, you know, you don't have any change in your pocket, you can still get a cup of coffee off the spare can, and so you get to know people.

And so there's a stigma around being homelessness or being homeless and what kind of person that makes you.

Here, you can come in and get to know people and can't really tell who is going through the program, who's not.

So it kind of erases that and puts everybody on kind of the same playing field.

It's worked out really well.

We have regulars come in every day from the ages of, you know, 3 to 90 and if Auntie V's not there, they're upset, so you know, it's worked out very well though, this neat little community that we kind of accidentally made or discovered.

- Talk about how the community can support Lucy J's Bakery.

- Well, the first thing would be to come in and purchase all these goodies.

It's definitely not an act of charity to purchase a cinnamon roll.

It's the best cinnamon roll you're gonna find.

But we're also always looking for donors, kitchen can use volunteers.

Check this out on givepulse.com.

And we'll also probably start volunteer opportunities, so you can check out there.

And then we're also looking always donors, board members, and all that stuff too.

And then just spread the word and tell all your friends about how great that cinnamon roll was.

- So where do we go to make sure that we spread the word and follow Lucy J's Bakery?

- Of course, you can find us on all the social medias, Facebook, Instagram.

Our website is lucyjbakery.com.

And there, you can place an order.

You can actually place an order for delivery today through a third-party delivery or, you know, a little bit further away date if you like, or a special event.

We also have a bread subscription there, and so you can pay once a month, and come in every week and grab a loaf of our fresh bread.

And then you can also donate or find volunteer opportunities there as well.

- Well Josh, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Oh, thank you.

We're happy to be here.

[upbeat music] - They're a nonprofit organization helping high school students prepare for college and careers.

We're here with the executive director of REACH Memphis, Tiffani Morrow Smith.

And let's start out, a long legacy for REACH Memphis.

Give us a little bit of background for REACH Memphis.

- Well first of all, I'm so excited to be with you today to share a little bit about our organization.

This mission is certainly near and dear to my heart.

Our history is longstanding.

We've actually been serving the Memphis community for nearly 60 years at this point.

So the organization actually launched shortly after the assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King.

And so, as you can imagine, during that time, there was a lot going on, especially for young people who were just trying to figure out what to do with their next steps.

And so there was a local businessman, Mr.

Jed Dreyfus, and a high school counselor, Mrs.

Hooks, who started the organization just as an opportunity to send students from the local inner city Memphis community out to, at that time, some preparatory boarding schools.

And so they had the opportunity to send those students off just to get a taste of what it's like to be outside of Memphis, to taste a bit of independence, taste a little bit of that college environment, taste what is to come for them in their future.

And so that experience ended up being transformational for that particular student.

And so they realized that they had created a good thing and just wanted to keep it going.

And so we've had a number of amazing champions that have pushed this work forward over the course of the last half century, right?

And so I'm so fortunate to be in this position to try to further this great mission.

And today, we still send students off to amazing summer experiences, transformational opportunities, experiences that many of them would not have otherwise.

And they're really opportunities to catapult their future, - Start with that summer experience and carry that into a lot of the mentoring and career opportunities because you do open up the eyes and the opportunities on all levels.

So go ahead and dive into the summer experience.

- We were very fortunate to send 25 students off on summer experiences this year.

Those students are traditionally rising juniors or rising seniors.

We talk about anything from time management, making sure that you're prepared, what it's like to deal with a roommate from another country, right?

Making sure that they are confident in their own skills and abilities, but are there to learn, right?

And receptive to any opportunities that present themselves over that summer experience.

And so that's really what catapults that REACH Memphis journey for our students.

So they come back energized, excited, many of them who were on the fence about whether or not a college career was for them, they're 100% convinced.

And so we take that information that they share with us upon their return and then place them in a scholar, what we call our college and career readiness scholar groups, right?

And so those scholar groups are opportunity for our students to be exposed not just to a career path, but working professionals within the Memphis community who are willing to invest their time and energy and expertise into our students.

And so we're building both social capital, but also providing an exposure opportunity for our students in career paths such as law, healthcare, STEM, specifically engineering, and so many other business communications, right?

Whatever they're interested in, we wanna make sure that they have exposure to it, but they're also gaining those 21st century skills that we know are so critical for their success in the future.

And we have so much more, right?

We have limited time.

I have so many other things that I can tell you about, our ACT prep services, our tutoring, right?

Just how we love as a staff, just love on our students, support them on their college journey.

We have a college and career readiness counselor that is dedicated to each individual student and their specific case.

Whatever they need, we're gonna be there for them to help them with that essay, that letter of recommendation, scholarships, financial aid, you name it, we've got a service for it.

- Talk about how the community can help REACH Memphis.

- Yeah, so first of all, we want you to get involved.

We've got some amazingly talented, brilliant students that can benefit from your expertise, right?

And so we have opportunities for community members to serve as mentors.

We certainly want to put that out there.

They can serve as facilitators in one of our college and career readiness groups.

Also financially support, invest in our students.

We try to cover as much of that summer experience cost as possible.

The majority of our families are unable to pay for an experience like that, and REACH Memphis foots the bill for them, right?

And so community support means so much to our students, letting them know that you believe in them, right?

That you're willing to invest in their future because you know that that investment is going to return to you well, right?

And so we have the opportunity for you to sponsor summer experiences for our students, but also our college and career readiness programming.

No amount is too big or too small, right?

If you wanna sponsor the whole program or you just wanna send us $25 a month, all of that is so, so valuable to us so that we can continue to do this great work.

- So where do we go to learn more and get involved with REACH Memphis?

- Yes, check us out at reachmemphis.org.

We've got a lot of great information there about our upcoming application process, right?

We've got applications opening for new students.

It's a small window.

Applications will be open until September 30th.

And so any sophomores in the Memphis community are eligible to apply.

We do prioritize students from Memphis-Shelby County Schools and local public schools.

But we want to get the message out there because it truly is a life-changing experience.

You also can follow us on social media @REACHMemphis.

You can get a peek of what's going on in our world.

We love to showcase the amazing alumni that have graduated from the program that are doing great things with their lives.

We love to tell a little bit about what our students are experiencing and what they're going through.

So we want you to share the good, right?

We want you to make sure that you follow us, that you like it, but you also tell someone else.

And so we ask that you do share some of the great things that are happening here in our city.

- Well, Tiffani, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you so much for having us.

[upbeat music] - The SPARK Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2024 Corporate Award for companies with more than 151 employees went to FedEx.

[gentle music] - My name is Rachel Kesselman, and I'm a communications advisor at FedEx.

FedEx is a global logistics delivery company that services the world.

And we're headquartered here in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here in Memphis, we have about 40,000 team members that are in the metro area.

FedEx community engagement through our FedEx Cares program is so important because FedEx is in 223 countries around the world.

So we want to service everyone in the communities where we live and work.

Operation Warm is such a special program.

We've been working with them since about 2008, started out as an in-kind shipping relationship.

And so far, we've shipped over 1.5 million coats, shoes, and other supplies with them.

Within the last eight years, we've been doing these FedEx team member power deliveries through volunteer activities.

What started in Memphis doing two events has grown to over 75 events in the US, Canada, and around Latin America.

We're so proud to be able to deliver new coats to kids, especially in Memphis.

We've actually delivered, in those last eight years, probably to over 25 schools.

And most recently, we started not just delivering coats, but in the last two to three years, we've started delivering shoes as well.

The Fly Forward Program is in collaboration with Operation Warm.

It's an extension, it's a really a great way to empower the next generation of girls.

It's about delivering new sports equipment to them, specifically sports bras.

We know that girls who receive the right equipment and sports bras, they're gonna become the next leaders, but it also encourages them to come to school, stay in school.

And those student athletes end up oftentimes going to secondary education, which is so important.

We wanna see those girls succeed and be whatever they want to be.

We've been working with the Women's Foundation in the Greater Memphis for the last five years to reduce poverty by five percent specifically in zip code 38126, which is where our adopted school is, BTW Senior High.

So we've collaborated with them in the last year to work with Feed the Children as well, to create a Food and Essentials Hub.

And it was amazing, they can go there to get food, essential supplies, like school supplies, feminine products, whatever they need to be successful, no questions asked, they can get those items.

We even put a washer and dryer in there.

So for those people that need to get clean clothes, they can wash their clothes at the school.

It's just an awesome opportunity.

And we know that the school and the neighborhood are taking great advantage of that in that area.

To be able to interact, bring smiles, bring joy, I think that makes a huge difference and really makes people reflect that we are blessed with what we have, but also to be able to provide those blessings to others will help everybody in the community succeed.

[upbeat rock music] - They're a nonprofit foundation with a comprehensive platform helping entrepreneurs and musicians.

We're here with the CEO of The Lonely Entrepreneur, Michael Dermer.

And let's start out, you are an entrepreneur, so give us a little bit of your background as an entrepreneur and what led you to launch The Lonely Entrepreneur.

- Thanks Jeremy so much for having me.

Yeah, as you know, you know, I started my career as a M&A lawyer in New York City, and then left the big law firm to pursue my dream, which was I started the first company in the US to reward people for being healthy.

Built that company up over the course of about 10 years.

I was venture backed and sold it, but not before living through the 2008 financial crisis and all that craziness, and had a nice little exit.

And then after I sold my company, Jeremy, as you know, I've been in New York for a good part of my life, and I was literally helping some entrepreneurs for fun.

And one of them said being an entrepreneur is really lonely.

Didn't think much about it, and a couple weeks later, I was walking down the street with a friend of mine and I said lonely entrepreneur.

And he said, "What'd you say?"

And I said, "Lonely entrepreneur."

He goes, "What is that?"

I go, "Nothing, it's a phrase."

He goes, "Are you kidding?"

And he goes into a Starbucks and he yells, "Who here is a lonely entrepreneur?"

And everybody put their hand up.

And then I kind of realized at that point, Jeremy, what my mission going forward was.

There was all these people with talent and passion and money and energy that it wasn't turning into success.

And I said, "Wow, if you could wake up and do anything, "that would be something really worth waking up to do every day."

And so that was the birth of The Lonely Entrepreneur.

- So there's a robust platform that goes into this.

Mentoring goes into this.

Talk about the program, talk about the platform.

- Well really, Jeremy, when I had that aha moment and said, "Why is it so hard for people to become an entrepreneur," I just started looking around and saying, "Okay, how do you become an entrepreneur in the US?"

Even though, Jeremy, I was one, I was pretty formally trained as a corporate and law guy.

I was like, okay, if you got dropped in Memphis or Nashville or Cookville or New York City, where would you go?

And there was really well-intentioned, but kind of disorganized hodgepodge of resources.

And I was like, "Why isn't there a platform?"

You know, I was a SaaS technology guy at that point.

I'm like, "Why isn't there a one stop shop?"

And it just didn't exist.

So we built this thing called the Learning Community, and we said if we wanted to help everybody, high school kid, somebody with a twinkle in their eye, a farmer, a technologist, what would it have to have?

And to your point, you know, we said it had to be knowledge, tools, and support.

So knowledge was, what's an income statement?

What do I do when I'm freaking out?

So we have now 2,500 on-demand learning modules.

We've got tools, so that's marketing templates and legal agreements and all that stuff.

But then this on-demand support, you know, support right when you need it.

And so that's the point, we have on-demand group coaching sessions.

We can sign up for an unlimited number of those.

And then a place to get your questions answered real time by members of our team.

So hopefully you can put kind of anybody in there regardless of their stage improve their chances of success.

- Well, Memphis is famous for music, and you're doing a lot to support musicians as well.

So talk about that piece of it.

- There's these amazing, talented musicians that come from all over the world to come to Tennessee and they don't know anything about business.

And the world has changed so much when it comes to streaming and rights and all the things that it's not just about their talent.

And so we saw a great opportunity to try to help them.

And so we launched our Music Entrepreneur Initiative with the goal of trying to help 100,000 musicians and artists and the folks that support them have access to the platform for free.

And the way that we do that, as you know, is we go to corporations, philanthropies, governments, and even individuals who know how hard the journey is and they're able to contribute some dollars to our nonprofit.

And by contributing those dollars, we can give that away to musicians throughout Tennessee, you know, for free.

- Talk about some of the testimonials that you're getting back from the entrepreneurs, from the musicians in terms of the power of what you're doing and how it's helping them.

- I think the biggest thing that the entrepreneurs tell us is, "I have one place to go.

"If I'm gonna learn on my own, I can go, "if I can ask a question real time, I can go, I can go to as many coaching sessions as I want."

And the second thing, and it seems weird, is trust, right?

If you go online and say, you know, should I form an LLC, the first 10 things you see are ads.

So it becomes really difficult for an entrepreneur to try to figure out who to trust.

So I think for us it's one place to go, I can kinda learn and go any way I want.

And the other is I have somebody that, you know, this has basically been paid for, right?

So I can trust them to know that all we're trying to do is to help them.

- You alluded to it earlier, but go ahead and talk about how the community can support The Lonely Entrepreneur.

- You know, we want, an example of the musicians, right?

We want these 100,000 folks to get it for free.

And so the way that we do that, if you're a corporation or a philanthropy or an individual, you can simply go to our nonprofit site, which is tlefoundation.org, and click on our Music Entrepreneur Initiative.

Or if you wanna support a different type of entrepreneur, we have something called Adopt an Entrepreneur where you can pick the entrepreneurs you want.

And so if an individual bought our platform on their own, they would have to pay $1,000 a year.

You know, we try to keep it really expensive, but it's still $1,000 a year, inexpensive, I should say.

But when you contribute to our foundation, for every $250 you contribute, it supports an entrepreneur for a year.

And so we just encourage people to say, "I wanna help 10 musicians," that would be $2,500.

And we even have a feature now, you could actually pick the actual musicians you want to help.

So if you know 10 people, we'll ask you during the process, do you know an actual 10?

And you'll get to tell exactly who they are, and then we get to have the fun little conversation of saying, "Hey, so and so just supported you, so you can have this for free."

- Well you never can say it enough in the world of media.

So mention again the website and where do we go to get involved with The Lonely Entrepreneur?

- Thank you again, Jeremy.

It's just tlefoundation.org, and there's the music initiative on there.

And then a big donate button.

And like we said, we're trying to help 100,000.

There's many, many more of those throughout the United States that are struggling, you know, in the artistic community.

So anything that your audience can do to help.

And if you happen to know corporate or philanthropic partners that are passionate about this audience, which obviously many are throughout Memphis and the state of Tennessee of course, we're happy to talk to them about, you know, contributions that can impact a larger number of people.

- Well Michael, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy.

I really appreciate it.

[upbeat music] - So what connects a bakery, a student's dream, and an entrepreneur's struggle?

At first glance, maybe not much, but when you look closer, you see a similar story of people who refuse to stay down, who rise with the support of those who believe in them.

At Lucy J's Bakery, bread rises in the oven, but so do the lives of people who are given a second chance.

At REACH Memphis, students rise above expectations, above barriers, toward futures filled with possibility.

And with The Lonely Entrepreneur, innovators and musicians rise out of isolation, finding the guidance they need to turn ideas into impact and successful businesses.

When we come together as a community, we discover that rising is not something we do alone.

It's something we do side by side together.

Every loaf of bread purchased, every student mentored, every entrepreneur supported, it all adds up to a family, a movement, a city that believes in lifting each other higher.

So how will you help someone rise?

Where can you help power the good and become a spark?

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month, and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]