 If you are new here... welcome to the Mafia Miracle Report. Every week I share what is happening inside Move-In Day Mafia, a nonprofit that supports foster care and unhoused college scholars at HBCUs with dorm room makeovers, care packages, move-in support, and community. I'm TeeJ, the founder and I'm glad you're here. Whelp! It's summertime and school is out for our scholars. Which means some are couch surfing. Some are working regular jobs, grinding through summer the best they can. That is real and I never want to gloss over it. But I also want you to see what else is happening. Because this week I sat down and looked at what some of our scholars are doing this summer and I couldn't be more proud. These are kids who lost parents. Kids who slept in cars and behind stores. Kids who aged out of the system with nothing and nobody. Kids who showed up to their first day of college with everything they owned in a trash bag. Look at what their summer looks like. A.D. — Clark Atlanta University is heading to Cornell for a summer research program and already presenting his research! How cool is that?! M.C. — Morehouse College just wrapped an internship with the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. Now he is turning around and doing research at Morehouse School of Medicine. He is building his resume and I'm here for all of it. G.T. — Paul Quinn College just graduated and messed around and got hired full-time at Wells Fargo. And she is getting her first apartment. Adulthood looks good on her. W.N. — Delaware State University left for a Walt Disney World internship in food service. Maybe she's learning to make Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy's favorite dishes. D.J. — Spelman College landed an internship at Northwestern University in Chicago and I already know she's gonna kill it. W.A. — Savannah State University started her internship at Prevention Point Philadelphia, a nonprofit that serves people who are unhoused and struggling with addiction. She knows what hard looks like up close. And now she is walking into someone else's hard story, ready to help. A.J. — Fisk University had a couple of internship offers and decided on one all the way in San Jose, California. L.M. — Lane College got accepted into the Summer Research STEM Academy. Maaaaan are kids are super scholars. W.Z. — Prairie View A&M University has offers from both MD Anderson and UT Texas. At the time I'm writing this, she is still deciding. W.Z. has TWO options and is choosing between them. Read that again. B.N. — Prairie View A&M University is studying abroad. In Barbados. Yeah...you read that right...Barbados. H.K. — Florida A&M University is presenting her research at Florida State this summer. Getting paid to do it. Moving into her first apartment. And working on her driver's license before August. Three wins. At once. S.D. — Prairie View A&M University has plans to go to Honduras with a friend's family. She is also learning day trading and studying for her life and health insurance license. I don't know when she sleeps. D.F. — North Carolina A&T University is heading to Washington, D.C. with the National Foster Youth Institute. She will be shadowing a congressman. Working alongside delegates on advocacy for young people who have been in foster care. She is using her own story to change policy. Mafia Miracle Makers...YOU did that! You are the wings beneath our kids' wings. Every one of those names up there belongs to a kid who had every reason not to make it this far. Some lost parents to addiction. Some aged out of the system the day they turned 18 with nowhere to go. Some survived abuse that would have broken most adults. Some put themselves through high school while taking care of their younger siblings. And you stayed in their corner. Through care packages and move-in days and $25 Visa cards so they could get to a job interview. Through every little thing that added up to a scholar who now has somewhere to be this summer. This is where it went. And I'm grateful.  Every month when our scholars submit their care package requests, they have to finish a sentence. They choose one: “I’m grateful that…” “I’m excited that…” “I’m looking forward to…” So we like to share some with you:   I was listening to the Diary of a CEO podcast recently. The guest was James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits. And one thing he said went off like a sonic boom in my spirit. "Consistency beats intensity every time." I've been sitting with that ever since. At 53, I am in a whole new phase of life. Menopause is real and it is an adjustment. My body has changed. The rules have changed. And one of the first things to go was my relationship with working out. In my 20s and 30s, I was an intense workout person. I mean intense. Miss a day and I would beat myself up about it. That was my thing. That was my identity. Hard, consistent, punishing effort. Except my body is telling me now that intensity is actually working against me. What served me then does not serve me now. And I had to learn to give myself grace around that. So when James said that, something unlocked. He talked about a marathon. You can sign up for one, train for months, cross that finish line, and feel incredible. That is intensity. But it is a moment, a BIG moment that deserves celebrating. But! It is the walk you take on a Tuesday morning when you do not feel like it. The workout you show up for in February when nobody is watching and nothing exciting is happening. The years of ordinary days that has nothing to do with any race or any event. No celebrating. A marathon does not necessarily translate to healthy. You need the daily walk. The consistent workout. The habit that keeps going whether there is something to train for or not. That is what actually changes your body. That is where the real benefit lives. Whatever you are building right now, please hear me. You do not have to be intense every single day. You just have to keep going. I spent years thinking that taking it easy meant I was falling behind. I know now it just means I'm still in the game. Remember...consistency beat intensity every time! Hug yourself for me and I'll see you next week. In the meantime, like, comment, subscribe and share. Plus, early bird tickets for this year's annual fundraiser, THEE HBCU BINGO XPERIENCE, are on sale. This Bougie Bingo goes down Saturday, July 11th live in Atlanta at the Morrow Center at 7pm. MoveInDayMafia.org/HBCUBingo  If you are new here... welcome to the Mafia Miracle Report. Every week, I share what is happening inside Move-In Day Mafia, a nonprofit that supports foster care college scholars with monthly care packages, move-in support, and community. I'm TeeJ. Glad you're here. Last move-in season, something happened at our Atlanta schools that still makes me smile. But first, let me back up. One of the things we've learned as Mafia has grown is how many gaps our scholars face that I never even thought about before. And I mean never. Because it was never my reality. When I was at Howard, summer was easy. My Uncle Rosco lived 25 minutes from campus. My stuff went in his garage during my summers. Done. No stress. No logistics. Just...my reliable Uncle Rosco. Our scholars don't have an Uncle Rosco. When the school year ends and the dorms close, everything they own is in question. There's no family garage. No mom's spare room. No "just leave it here until August." For a student without a stable home, May is not just the end of the school year. It's a logistics crisis. Enter U-Haul College Boxes!!!!! Their program is built specifically for college students. Before summer break, scholars get boxes and packing materials delivered to them. U-Haul picks everything up, stores it all summer, and delivers it right back to campus when they return. For a student with a family to go home to, it's convenient. For our scholars? It's everything.  This makes the second year that Sophia and her team at College Boxes will ride with us. And let me tell you... Sophia does NOT play when it comes to these babies. One of our Clark Atlanta scholars said it better than I ever could. She was filling out her May care package request form where they are required to finish a sentence stem where she chose to tell us... "I'm very thankful for Move-In Day Mafia and the College Boxes company for helping me to be able to move my stuff out safely and put it in storage so that I can come back to it." I was so touched that we, through College Boxes, were able to give her that peace by taking one more stress off of her. That is why this work matters. We fill gaps that others take for granted without even realizing it. And then last move-in season... College Boxes took it even further. At our Atlanta move-in, mixed in with our usual crew of volunteers, there were amazing men who looked like they'd come straight from a work shift, working with their strong hands. Work gear. Ready to move. Lifting heavy boxes up stairwells. Moving furniture. Hanging posters. Sweating right alongside everybody else in the brutal August heat. Admittedly, this was new and I was intrigued. Who sent them? How did they end up here? How'd they here about us? Come to find out... THE LOCAL U-HAUL SENT THEM! THEY WERE ACTUALLY MOVERS! The local U-Haul had organized it. Sophia facilitates and coordinates everything on the College Boxes side, and she made sure her people showed up. Not just with boxes. With PEOPLE! They send boxes so our kids don't lose their stuff over the summer. They gave us Sophia, who coordinates and organizes everything so it runs without a hitch. And now they send volunteers from their own team, from their own community, to stand next to us and move our scholars into dorms. That is not a sponsor. That is a partner. And I love that for Mafia! When people who don't look like our scholars, don't come from our community, don't share our specific experience... when they show up anyway, because someone at U-Haul said "go help"? That is what it looks like when an organization actually believes in what we're doing. Boots. On. The ground. Incredibly grateful to the College Boxes team and my new friends from the Atlanta location.  And if you have a college student in your life, whether they're in our program or not, go check them out. CollegeBoxes.com. These are good people doing good work and they deserve your business.  Every month when our scholars submit their care package requests, they have to finish a sentence. They choose one: “I’m grateful that…” “I’m excited that…” “I’m looking forward to…” So we like to share some with you:   Mafia Miracle Maker, I'll be honest with you. I always knew corporate partners would come. When I started Move-In Day Mafia, I had a picture in my head of what this thing would look like one day. Maybe five years in. Maybe ten. A real operation. Established. Proven. The kind of org that companies would want to attach their name to. I could see it out there in the distance. I just didn't think it would happen this fast. We were still figuring things out when U-Haul College Boxes came in. Still learning the gaps. Still discovering what our scholars actually needed once they got to campus. And here comes a national company saying: we see you, we believe in what you're doing, and we're all in. I didn't go looking for them as a partner. I was simply investigating the cost. And God sent them. Early. Before I had the fancy deck. Before the track record was long. Before I felt "ready" for that kind of partnership. My mind is still blown. Because I thought I had at least five more years before something like this would happen. And God said: no, baby. Right now. So whatever you're building right now, I need you to hear me. Don't put a timeline on when the right people will show up. Don't talk yourself out of the ask because you think you're not far enough along yet. I want you to think about the partnership, the collaboration, the ask that you keep pushing to "someday." The one you're saving for when you feel more established. More credible. More ready. Someday might show up sooner than you think. Here's my question for you today: What's the call you keep almost making? What's the partnership you've been circling? What's the ask you've been rehearsing in the shower but not saying out loud? What door are you standing in front of, telling yourself it's not for someone like you? Make the call. The worst they can say is no. And sometimes, they send people. The world needs what happens when you stop waiting to be ready. I'll see you next week but before I go...May's Adopt A Scholar Week kicked off yesterday. If you have the budget, please pop over to MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar Grab an item or two. It's summer for some of our scholars, and they are not on campus; some are even couch surfing, so you will find that some of our schools are only Visa Gift cards since Amazon delivery times can be unpredictable. Thank you for all you do and making Move-In Day Mafia your favorite charity.  Haaaaaaappy Friday. Oooooooweeee. Pull up a chair for this one because we have been building to this moment for weeks. We spent the last few weeks highlighting this year's grads in our Finish Line & Front Door series. To read our first four stories... A.J. from Fisk. A.O. from Delaware State. B.C. from Benedict College. G.T. from Paul Quinn. And now we are here. Meet our fifth. M.N. from Lane. But first...just in case you are new here. Move-In Day Mafia is the family that shows up for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating college under severe financial hardship. We don't just move them in. We stay. Four years. Monthly care packages. Because getting in is one thing. Staying, is where everything gets tested. We are family. Mafia Miracle Makers, as I like to call it. MEET M.N. Lane College. Jackson, Tennessee. Interdisciplinary Studies, English and Arts. From Memphis. M.N. had been in the foster care system since she was three years old. Three. Her parents struggled with mental health and criminal activities. There were stretches when M.N. and her siblings were left alone for months. No lights. No water. Neighbors would check in to make sure they were still breathing. Her brother is currently serving six life sentences. She was barely two years old when that happened. She and her sisters were split up. Moved around. Sometimes with family who were abusive. Sometimes with families dealing with their own housing instability. Then, when M.N. was 7, one foster family took all three sisters together. That held for a while until... M.N. came out as gay at 17, and they put her out. She went to live with friends. Couch-surfed from Memphis to Nashville to Arkansas. She was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and anxiety. She got to college and failed out freshman year. Took a year and a half off with nowhere to land. At one point, she slept behind an AutoZone. Outside...behind an Autozone. Can you even imagine? And then she decided...just that simple...decided: "I didn't want to be broke my whole life." That decision was made by a young girl...behind an AutoZone...who got tired of the story she was living and decided it was time to write a different one. I'm thankful for resilience. She packed up what she had. And got herself back to Lane College. But this time? Different resolve. Different maturity. Different M.N. She locked in. And...she...killed...the...game. The young lady who entered foster care at three graduated #4 in her class.  WITH INK ON HER HANDS & A NEEDLE IN HER POCKET Out of all of that chaos, all of that instability, all of those years of just trying to survive, something unexpected grew. Art. Art rose up and she ran with it. I'm jumping up and down now. Watch where her art took M.N. Five art galleries. M.N. participated in five of them while she was in school. A tattoo apprenticeship. Competitive. Thousands of applicants. Selected based on the strength of her portfolio alone. She won. Her first commissioned pieces. She sold them while she was still a student. The President's List. Seven consecutive semesters. Not once. Not twice. Seven straight semesters, she was on that list. President of three clubs at the same time. Robotics. Art club. Creative writing. Business owner. Tutor. Student worker. Peer mentor. All at once. All while holding her grades. And now she is being commissioned to paint murals.  She watched Ink Masters as a kid. She loved art, poetry, cartoons, color. She has a dream of making Afrocentric animation, of working for Studio Ghibli one day. And while she was in college, surviving and building, she took a tattoo needle and turned it into a career. She didn't wait until after graduation. She built the business inside the degree. That is discipline. That is vision. That is what happens when someone decides their history is not going to be their destination. And when a community of people shows up to make sure they have everything they need to prove it. YOU SHOULD BE PROUD TOO In the last four years of doing Mafia, the biggest thing I've noticed is how taking care of their basic needs enables these scholars' minds to explore, expand, and take flight. Every month, they submit their care package wishlists. And every month, I learn something about who they are by what they ask for. M.N. asked for a tattoo chair. Not a pillow. Not a candle. A tattoo chair. Because she wasn't just getting through school. She was building a business inside of it. When you bought that tattoo chair, you were investing in an entrepreneur who hadn't graduated yet. When you grabbed that stencil printer, you were stocking the studio of an artist who was already turning her art into a career before she ever walked across a stage. And then there were the Rice Krispies Treats Crispy Marshmallow Squares, the Gatorade, the Pringles, the Doritos, the Cheetos. Every. Single. Month. When you tossed those in the cart, you were sending her a little piece of joy on the days the grind got heavy. And then there was the month she ordered a whole stack of Manga and Anime books. You bought them. When you said yes to her wishlist, month after month, you were saying: we see all of you. That was YOU, Mafia Miracle Maker. You were not just sending supplies. You were sending proof that somebody believed she was worth investing in. Your investment plus her tenacity, her determination, her refusal to quit...walked across that graduation stage as #4 in her class. Ready to help us celebrate FIVE graduating seniors? This year we have five scholars crossing the stage. The most we have ever had in one year. We are covering their graduation regalia, fees, and gifts so they walk across that stage feeling every bit of what they earned. If you've got $1, $10, $100 or whatever feels right, it all goes toward that moment. 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates  Usually, this section shares screenshots from a variety of our scholars but in celebration of M.N., here are a few of hers.   Last week I told you I was writing to you from New York City. I went to be in the studio for the final taping of the Sherri {Shepherd} Show. To be front row for my friend, the same way she has been front row for me. You already know that story. What I did not tell you is that I came home with a souvenir nobody asked for. A bug. A full-on, knocked-me-flat, had-me-in-bed-since-Friday bug. And here is the thing. I have a lot going on right now. Applications are open. Move-In Season is coming. HBCU Bingo, our in-person fundraiser in July, is coming. So I fought it. I pushed through. I kept telling myself I didn't have time to rest. And my body said: yes, you do. I finally had to stop. Lie down. Let my body do what it was trying to do. And somewhere in the stillness, I remembered something I already knew. My healing comes in rest. Delaying rest was not making me stronger. It was making recovery harder and longer. I was working against myself. I also had to trust that God is not surprised by my timing. He knew the Sherri taping was last week. He knows Move-In Season is coming. He knows about HBCU Bingo coming up. He knows about all of it. So, my getting sick didn't just pop up on Him. Which means maybe the rest was part of the plan, too. Some days, doing your best looks like a full calendar and a packed schedule. And some days, doing your best looks like pulling the covers up and letting your body heal. Both are doing your best. If you are running on empty right now, pushing through something you probably should have sat down with a long time ago, I want to ask you something. What would happen if you trusted that the work will still be there after you rest? Because it will be. And you will do it better when you are whole. Rest is not quitting. Rest is preparation. See you next week, Mafia Miracle Maker. And don't forget... You can donate to our graduate fund through next week. 👉🏾MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Thank you for being the community that showed up for M.N. And for all five of them. Hug yourself for me. Like, comment, share and subscribe.  I MISCALCULATED. Haaaaaaappy Friday. I am writing to you from New York City today. Not Atlanta. Last Wednesday, I told you we would reveal the last scholar in The Finish Line & The Front Door series. I had it all planned out. But then I got on a plane. I needed to be in the studio for the last taping of the Sherri Show. You might know Sherri as an Emmy Award winner, a former co-host of The View, a New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most recognized faces in entertainment. Tyler Perry recently cast her in Straw, and she killed it. She is one of the funniest standup comics working today. And I get to call her "friend." A 25-year friend to be exact. And my girl is closing a chapter...her show is ending. I needed to be in this studio. Front row. The same way she has been front row for me more times than I can count. Some things you do not miss. You just show up. There is more about all of this later in the newsletter. Keep reading. Two Things. I'll have to write the last Finish Line & Front Door scholar next week. But today, I need to talk to you as a sister friend, not as the nonprofit founder of Move-In Day Mafia, which, by the way, is the family that shows up for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating college under severe financial hardship. We don't just move them in. We stay. Four years. Monthly care packages. Because getting in is one thing. Staying is where everything gets tested. We are family. Mafia Miracle Makers, as I like to call it. Now. Let's Celebrate. I have to shout about two of our scholars one more time. PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS. You remember L.I.? And remember a few weeks ago, several of you chipped in $1,200 so she could buy the materials she needed to run for SGA President at Prairie View A&M. Well. L.I. has been elected the 45th Student Government Association President of Prairie View A&M University for the 2026–2027 academic year. OMG OMG OMG SHE DID IT. And not only that. She is only the 5th woman ever to hold that title in the history of that institution. She entered foster care at 15. Her original plan wasn't college. It was a warehouse job. Get to work. Survive. She runs the Hill now. Congratulations, Madam President. We see you. And then there's W.N. Our Delaware State scholar who landed a Disney internship. Yeah. That Disney. Some of you moved fast when we asked about airline miles and hotel points to help her get there. Thank you. We got her flight covered, but now we are working on the hotel. She needs a hotel for a couple of days before her official housing check-in. May 16th is coming fast, so if you have hotel reward points, please email us at [email protected]. If you want to donate... → Chip in for W.N.'s Disney trip W.N. worked too hard to miss this over a few-night stay in a hotel. The Morning My Phone Blew Up Last week, my phone started going off. Instagram notifications. Text messages. Back to back to back. I was first terrified, thinking those nude photos of me dancing at Magic City to make money for Move-In Day Mafia had been leaked.😜 It was not that. What it WAS... was Sherri. Apparently, on that day's show, she had shared a story about one of our conversations in her opening monologue. And it had resonated with her audience in a way that had comments blowing up and strangers sending me the clip. See...what had happened was... The Call. Sherri called me early one morning. I am not a morning person at all. I had no business being awake at that hour. But for some reason, that morning, I was up. I answered and immediately heard her hyperventilating. My heart dropped. The only thing running through my mind was her son, Jeffrey. I started talking her down. Slow. Calm. Getting her to breathe. It took a few minutes before I could actually understand what she was saying. And when I finally did? It wasn't Jeffrey. For the first time in her entire career, Sherri Shepherd, the woman who has performed standup in front of thousands, co-hosted national television for years, and acted in major films, was completely freaking out about... An audition. A Broadway musical audition. First time ever. She was so nervous that she said she needed to sing. And if you know Sherri, her singing capabilities begin and end at karaoke. She told me how tired she was from the long hours she'd been putting in. How she'd practiced so much that her voice was gone and now her voice sounds like "fried chicken." Yeah, that's exactly what she said. I don't know what fried chicken sounds like at all. Do you? Having to think quickly before she completely lost it, I simply told her...well...how 'bout I just let HER tell you.   What I did not expect was what happened after. At the taping and again at the wrap party, once they realized I was there, members of Sherri's staff told me the same advice had helped them, too. People who had been in that studio every day. People who had watched Sherri build something for years and were now feeling the weight of it ending. They needed to run God's receipts, too. Maybe you do as well.  Every month when our scholars submit their care package requests, they have to finish a sentence. They choose one: “I’m grateful that…” “I’m excited that…” “I’m looking forward to…” So we like to share some with you:  Well Mafia Miracle Maker, that's a wrap for this week. I'll see you next week for the last Finish Line Scholar. I will not miscalculate this time. Until then, don't forget to donate to W.N.'s travel expenses or email [email protected] Don't have the budget right now? You can always smack the "share" button. That helps too. Hug yourself for me! TeeJ "The Godfather" Move-In Day Mafia |
AuthorTEEJ MERCER - TeeJ never set out to be an entrepreneur. She definitely didn’t plan to run a nonprofit. But after 25 years in Hollywood, editing and producing for major TV shows and movie studios, she saw a story that needed to be told. More importantly, she saw a PROBLEM that needed to be solved. Archives
May 2026
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