Today, we’d like to introduce you to David Terry. David was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Jessica Villegas.
David, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
I was raised by parents who were both school teachers. My Dad taught high school and Mom taught second grade. So I was raised with the concept of giving back, especially to other kids. I was always drawn to helping, had a bunch of leadership positions in high school, including President of the school’s Peer Counseling program called Project Team. But when I got out of school that all fell by the wayside, life got in the way. Got married, we had a daughter, moved around some, traveled a bunch for work. But I’ve always felt like I was going to find a way to give back to the community and help people.
Fast forward to 7 years ago when our daughter started high school, I was invited to join the board of a Windermere High School parent group focused on raising money for their students. After a few years myself and a few other parents decided to break off from that and form our own non-profit, Legacy Events for Education. We realized we wanted to be able to help a larger teen population than just one school. Today we provide scholarships for graduates from 4 local high schools and have launched our teen education programs under the Legacy Academy brand.
We’ve heard great things about your organization. For our readers who might not be as familiar, can you please tell them about the organization?
Legacy Events for Education is a 501c3 whose mission is to inspire students teachers and communities to leave their Legacy on the world. We work to accomplish our mission in two major way. First, we provide college scholarships to students who have left the Legacy on our community through exceptional volunteerism during high school. We also partner with local businesses and organizations to help them award scholarships with volunteerism at the heart, but including their own additional criteria. Second, we sponsor the Legacy Academy, a teen education program focused on providing students and parents the tools they need to help improve their life skills so they have the space to figure out what their Legacy is going to be. I think a big thing that sets us apart is we don’t exclusively work with people in need. We believe that students in all demographics need the tools to help them be successful in the world. So our classes are free to anyone who wants to attend. We offer classes like How Money Works, a financial literacy program in partnership with McCoy Federal Credit Union, and Land the Interview, a resume writing class for teens. All teens need this help and we mix all interested students together so they can learn from the experiences off all. And our classes are all supported by certified life coaches from Hi-Lite Coaching and Consulting to insure we are providing the best learning environment possible for our participants! Our 100% volunteer based organization is funded by amazing sponsorships and donations from many local businesses and individuals. We use those sponsorships to produce fun local events like the Hamlin Craft Beer Festival and the Central Florida Chili Cookoff. These events and our generous donors allow us to fund our scholarships and the Legacy Academy! As these great fundraisers continue to grow we are excited to expand our programs!
Jessica Villegas has been a great friend to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Jessica and your experience with them.
Jessica has been a God-send to our organization. I first encountered Jessica when we were starting Legacy and we met at a few local networking events. I was always impressed with her understanding of our community and her obvious passion for helping teens improve their lives. It seemed like there was a great synergy between our goals for helping teens so we sat down to discuss some possible programs to run together. We started with our College Prep 101: Parent Edition class which helps parents understand the college entrance process their teens will be going through and have expanded to additional classes as funds became available. The more our partnership grew, our team invited Jessica to join our board as our Secretary, because we knew we needed her expertise to help us grow our educational programs effectively.
We are currently in the most exciting time for our organization and especially our Legacy Academy, a brand Jessica and I have built together. Thanks to our partnerships with the YMCA, Jessica on the board at the Dr. Phillips YMCA and me on the board at the Roper YMCA. we now offer Legacy Academy classes at the Y facilities in western Orange county with the goal to expand these programs as we continue to grow. With future opportunities we are working to grow Legacy Academy beyond the borders of west Orange county and expand to help students across central Florida and beyond. There is so much potential to grow the Legacy Academy with the support of Jessica and Hi-Lite that the sky really is the limit!
Website: legacyeventsfored.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LegacyEventsforeducation
Image Credits
Cannonfire Photography
