5 MOVE-IN SEASONS & A BED FRAME

Mafia Miracle Maker.

Tomorrow is August 1.

Move-in season starts in the morning.

I have been trying to find the right words for this moment all week and I keep coming up short. So I am just going to say it plain.

Five years ago, three of us drove to Dallas with $3,500 and a whole lot of nerve. We moved in 13 scholars at 1 HBCU.

Tomorrow, we kick off the season by moving in 18 scholars at 8 HBCUs. By the end our numbers will be...

Thirty-two HBCUs. 109 scholars!

I need you to hold that number for a second. Not because it is impressive. Because every single one of those numbers is a person. A real human being who showed up to college without a safety net, and looked up and found us there.

That is the miracle. Every time.

And with hundreds of thousands of dollars donated. Plus, thousands of hours donated. Not to mention, countless volunteers.

I want you to hear it straight from the scholars. What all of it actually means.

Because I can describe what we do all day long.

​But nothing I say will ever hit the way THEY do.

​These are real words from real scholars. Unedited. Unprompted. We simply asked "What does Mafia mean to you?"

THE MOMENTUM BEHIND THE MAFIA

You are used to seeing me hyped up and loud about this work.

But now I want to show you something most don't get to see.

Before one scholar walks into a room. Before one volunteer shows up. Before one care package is packed.
There are people working.

You see, many of our scholars come from environments where they were sleeping in basements. On floors. Surrounded by boxes. Some have never had a bedroom that was truly theirs.

So when they arrive at an HBCU, alone, with whatever they could carry, they are not just moving into a dorm room.

They are stepping into the first space in their lives that has ever been built just for them.

And that is exactly how we treat it.

Nikki Njeri Klugh and her team of designers build out every scholar's room. Not a generic setup. A fully designed space.

Before a scholar ever moves in, we send them an exhaustive questionnaire. Their favorite colors. Their interests. The things that make them feel at home.

And you know what? Some of them are stunned that we even asked.

Because nobody has asked before.

Then, LaTerra Wise and Mina Starks take those answers and build out the special touches. The items a scholar spots when they first walk in the room and know, without anyone having to say it, that somebody was paying attention. That somebody cared enough to pick this out specifically for them.

LaTerra, Nikki, and Mina have been with me since before Day One of Mafia.

Yesterday morning, I was not even out of bed yet when my phone rang.

It was LaTerra. Excited and overflowing with joy, describing aaaaaall the items she had found to make sure our scholars know we SEE them. At that hour.

I'll be honest. My excitement was not matching hers yet. My brain had not fully woken up.

But once it did?

​I just kept thinking: how blessed am I to have people who love these babies this much.

This is the momentum behind the mafia.


MOVE-IN MANIA: WE NEED YOU

One of our new incoming scholars got his first apartment this year.

When we told him we had a budget for one room and asked which one, I expected him to say the living room. The kitchen. Something big.

He said, "Auntie, if I could get a bed, that's all I really need."

He had been sleeping on an air mattress for months. His back was paying for it every single morning.
I melted.

​Then his Getting To Know You form came in. In the special requests section, he wrote this:

A bed frame. That is what he called a gamechanger.

If you can help us get this scholar a bed near Dayton or Cincinnati, shoot us an email: [email protected]

We also have scholars who put sewing as an interest. We want to get them sewing machines. $105 each.

Want to cover one? Shoot us an email: [email protected]

That is what we do. We ask. We listen. We show up.

But we need YOU to show up too on a move-in day if you can. Check out where we'll be this year.

Sign up to volunteer: MoveInDayMafia.org/MoveIn

If these scholar stories moved you, share this edition. Post it. Text it to one person. Every share is one more person who learns what these scholars are doing and why this work matters.

Hug yourself for me.

​TeeJ