MOUNT VERNON— Seventeen-year-old Daniel Graves, a senior at Mount Vernon Academy, was inspired by the men and women who have fought and died to bring peace, prosperity, and harmony to our country and the world, to organize a project to help the local community fight against poverty. He understands that with big goals one must “start small, but think big.”
Graves is working with local social service organizations and other students to reach the poor of Mount Vernon in a project called Push Against Poverty.
“I came up with the idea when I was on a government trip in Washington, D.C., and I was inspired by just visiting the war memorials there and how veterans in W.W. II and Vietnam sacrificed their lives for our country,” Graves said.
By visiting the memorials, Graves realized the true spirit of America is about “honor, service and duty to our country.”
On his way back from the trip, he began to think about what he could do to help his country and community. Graves was encouraged by a quote he read, written by Martin Luther King Jr., “You have not started living until you can rise above the narrow confines of your individualistic concerns and look to the broader concerns of all of humanity.”
“And I said ‘Wow. You have not started living,’ so I asked God ‘How can I start living right now? In what way can I start living right now?’” he said.
Although Graves is a native of Cleveland, he has attended MVA for four years and wants to look for ways to help here. He looked to the community around him and saw the needs of the people. “So I came up with the idea to help poor people in Mount Vernon right now.
“I believe in grassroots, just meeting people where they are at,” he said. “The idea is to first go out to the community and do an assessment in the form of a pamphlet that tells what the program is about, who I am, and they can have a piece that tears off that has a list of 10 to 15 needs on an assessment card.” Assessment cards ask participants to list
their top five needs and return the pamphlet when finished filling out the form.
“My vision is to reach all of the struggling people in Mount Vernon ... and I believe it will uplift the entire city and thus spread a new light in all of Ohio in a time of economic darkness that we are in,” said Graves.
He also hopes that this will inspire other young people in Ohio to reach out to their communities as well.
Graves has plans and understands that setting up small goals to achieve his larger goal will help get the job done. “When I was the school president last year, I learned that you have to start off small.” So he has planned for his project in several phrases.
The hardest part, Graves explained, is learning how to find out what members of the community need. For him all this is a learning process and he knows that this project will take time to build and develop. He looks forward to seeing the project expand to all of Ohio.
He has received help from many local organizations in the community in planning this project.
“I’ve called United Way. [I am] working with Salvation Army, Interchurch Social Services, the Acts center and I got ideas from them,” said Graves.
“I know I can’t do it alone,” he said. So, he has gathered some members of his student body to help in achieving his goals. “[We] want to take the pamphlets and go door to door, that way we can find out who’s struggling and who’s not.”
“I believe in a quote by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. He was a congressman back in the 1950s and ’60s. He said ‘Mass action is the most powerful action on earth.’”
Graves has received a lot of support from his family in Cleveland. “My mom and dad definitely support me in this effort. They have always encouraged me to get involved with something bigger than myself.
“I believe no one is too young to serve,” said Graves. “I just asked myself the question, ‘if not me then who and if not now then when?”
Also he has received much advice, support and mentorship from faculty and staff on this project.
“One of our big pushes with the students is character development in specifically selfless service,” said Tim Soper, teacher and chaplain at MVA, who has also advised Graves with this project. “We really try to encourage them in that.”
Soper said that Graves has been highly motivated. “We try to provide opportunities, as many as we can, and try to get [Daniel] into contact with other agencies that can help develop that in him, but to a large degree he has that motivation already built in to want to help.”
MVA has been really involved in community service activities and that ideal is something they encourage in their students.
“As a Christian school [selfless service] is what we are about,” said Soper. “We want to be a bigger part in the community, and have a bigger impact on our community as well.” He doesn’t recall when the school began outreach with the community, but Soper knows that selfless service is an important issue to the school.
