Asset Builder Spotlight

October - 2007
Three generations of asset champions reside in one household. Grandmother Mary Lou, mother Paige and son Madison have all been trained as Children First Asset Champions and are committed members of the Asset Champions Network.

Who started the intergenerational trend? Thirteen-year-old Madison.

“I was a glowing mother when Madison was asked to represent the St. Louis Park Junior High Student Council in the network,” Paige explains. She accompanied him to the January launch of the Asset Champions Network. “There was no place to sit in the back of the room, so I joined a table. When I heard about the whole thing, I was hooked.”

Grandma Mary Lou, who spent her career in public health nursing, said her antennae went up when she first learned about Developmental Assets and Search Institute. Then she was excited to learn that St. Louis Park was committed to this research through the Children First initiative. So excited, that she participated in the Asset Champion training in March.

The three trained Asset Champions are committed to spreading the word through their community activities. Madison will become senior patrol leader of his Boy Scout Troop in January. He is considering fun ways to share the message with other Scouts and looks to many of the tools he received through his training. He also plans to work with other Asset Champions at St. Louis Park Junior High to recruit more students to participate.

Mary Lou is a block captain in the Westwood Hills Neighborhood. She helps distribute the association’s newsletter, the Westwood Wire. She and Paige are planning to get neighbors discussing their role in asset building through contact with the association. As Cookie Grandma and Cookie Mom, for 12-year-old Mariah’s Girl Scout troop, they see this organization as another venue for spreading the word.

The newest member of the family is Sergi, an Amity Scholar from Spain who is teaching at Park Spanish Immersion this year. Committed to the asset of “Cultural Competence,” this is the fourth international visitor the family has hosted through the Amity Scholar program. Sergi said he was surprised at how community-focused the people he has met in St. Louis Park are, including young people. “Kids have more responsibilities here,” he said.

Why do they do all that they do? Mariah explained, “To become a good person, you need someone to inspire you.” For her, those people include her mother and grandmother. And she in turn is a role model through her Girl Scout troop which is adopting a younger sister troop. “I am an inspiration to other people, so it’s like a big long chain.”

“We talk about the responsibility to society. We have opportunities so we also have responsibilities,“ said Paige. “We’re just paying it forward.”

Written by Julie Meintsma.