Tip #1 Do something you love doing so it doesn’t feel like work. Frank loves technology, sports, and working with kids thus all three variables are incorporated into his foundation. Frank sent a group of his kids to NASA, he sent another group to Europe to see the arts overseas, and extended his hand to assist a motivated young man with scholarship for Harvard through football and academic scholarship. Tanya Ski love’s the art’s and she has drawing contest for student’s. If you read our last article on Frank and Tanya, I explained her exposure to arts as a young girl which has superseded itself into Frank Ski kids.
Tip #2 Work with kids and expose them to the world so they don’t feel like traveling is that big of deal. We try to teach kids at a very impressionable age that the world is not as big as they think it is. The world is actually a smaller place, “some of our kids go to school in Europe” so if they get a job offer in Europe or Japan they don’t see it as a big deal.
Tip #3 I asked Frank about a young girl that has the potential to win the state of Georgia in 100 meter relays and he said do what we do “show them. It’s not even going to cost you that much money, take her to the Pen relays so she see’s girls her age that look like her. Have her walk around and meet some of these girls so it become’s a reality” If the only thing they see is one thing in their perspective, you have to just take them away.
Tip #4 Being philanthropic isn’t for everybody. You have people that make a lot of money and donate a lot of money and you never know who they are, they do it totally anonymously. You have people that make a lot of money and don’t do anything, it’s a personal thing. What I would tell people is the more you give, the more you get back. Our giving has been not just a blessing but God gives back to us, it’s like a cycle.
He said a lot of things that sound basic yet hold a lot of weight and truth. Exposure is an underrated commodity that not all kids have at their feet. Sometime’s its our role and responsibility to show kids something new that they can not access on their own. Exposure was a common topic throughout our interview, but spirituality was brought up often as well. Volunteering and giving your time feels so much better when it’s an effortless gesture. Giving back to receive doesn’t work as well as giving back for the sake of giving back to the community. It’s important to be mindful of all the people that helped each of us on route to where we have reached as professional’s, student’s, aspiring professionals, etc. Once we reach our goals, we realize that it does not take much nor does it hurt to help someone get closer to their dreams.
