A Woman of Deep Faith Gives Back to God

Oral Lee Brown is a CNN Hero who should inspire and challenge all of us. Especially those who have had the privilege of receiving a college education. Born into the absolute poverty of rural Mississippi, she wanted to give something back to God. Her faith inspired her to give "something back to God" for all He had done for her.

After moving to the west coast while raising three children, she attended night classes and earned her degree from the University of San Francisco University. She eventually bought her own real estate firm. In 1987 she made a profound commitment while earning only $45,000 per year. She committed to put $10,000 a year aside and started a foundation with the goal of providing a college education for the entire first grade class at Oakland's Brookfield Elementary School. She saved $10,000 per year for 12 years!

Blanche Evans recently wrote about Oral Lee Brown in this month's Realty Times news publication:

Seventeen years ago, Brown found a hungry little girl who was skipping school. Her heart was touched, and she realized it doesn't have to be that way. The key to preventing and rising above poverty, drug dealing, and other societal
blights is in education, so Brown went to Brookfield Elementary, a local
elementary school in a troubled area of East Oakland. Stunned and delighted
school officials saw her make the first-graders there a promise - "Stay in school, and I will see you through college."

Brown was born in poverty and saw herself through college. To help others, she established the Oral Lee Brown Foundation which helps at-risk students stay motivated to stay in school. Today, the foundation manages about $375,000 annually in contributions. She pays for their college tuition through annual fundraising banquets, held each August, and through donations. Last year, the first wave of those first-graders graduated from colleges across the United States, and Brown was there in person or in spirit for each ceremony. Of the 23 students in that original class, 19 went on to college, and most are still enrolled. Brown hopes that number grows each year... This May, four more of "her" students graduated.

To see and hear more about this amazing woman go to: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/specials/2007/05/14/natpkg.heroes.oral.lee.brown.cnn

What an inspiration to those of us who have been given much!