Who am I not to give?” was the sentiment of Frank and Tanya Ski when we met last week to discuss their charitable efforts. The couple was kind enough to sit down with BCG to talk about their charitable work here in Atlanta. It didn’t take long for me to understand that their work in the community wasn’t limited to Atlanta. The philanthropic couple agree that giving back their time to serve the community transitioned into a spiritual journey that has sent gracious young men and women to Harvard, Galapagos, Venice, as well as NASA.
Exposure
Mr. Ski, you do a lot of work with the kids on the technology side. What is your connection with technology?
“As with anything else that’s labor intensive you should do something you enjoy. For me science and technology is something I love to do, so it doesn’t really feel like work. I enjoy going on this Galapagos trip, for me it becomes not really work so when you put in the time you just love what you do….Tonya is a lover of the arts especially the old cities of Greece or Rome its a passion for her to do that. For us it becomes a passion”.
Frank before you came in Felicia and I were talking about the trip to the Bahamas and Italy, can you tell me a little more about the trips you guys take and what inspires these destinations?
“Personal interest of ours that we’ve had an opportunity to do but I think once you’re exposed to do one thing that opens the door to do something else and that opens the door to do something else. I’m learning and going to places at the same time. We do the trips to expose kids to not to just traveling but to show them that traveling isn’t a big deal…what we try to do is 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 and that going to school in Europe is not that big of a deal. We have several of our kids going to school in Europe.”
I asked about how to get young person’s that I work with exposure and we got into how Tanya’s passion for the arts and how she incorporates that passion for art with kids from their non-profit
I had gone to Europe as a teenager toured ten countries and my love for the arts came at a young age from the things that I saw as far as sculptures by Michael Angelo and Picasso. I got back home and started appreciating more and more African American art. Then I’m looking at the Cosby Show and I’m looking at more and more African American’s which I love Bill Cosby for doing and at least once a month he would wear different Black College sweat shirts. He would have different African American paintings which people didn’t pay attention to but I did. That’s why we went to Florence and Rome so the kids that wouldn’t normally be on the Galapagos or Amazon, they would get an opportunity to really spread their wings and get exposed to that on their end. Math and science kids need as much exposure as the art kids but they just as much drive and exposure as those other kids”.
What is your relationship with the kids during their time spent with you and after they move on?
Frank and Tanya explained “Our job has become that we’re now one of the organizations that really identifies young leaders. They become young leaders amongst their peers. They leave us after the summer they’re with us and become class president’s and start their own clubs and organizations. The other thing we’ve seen is a lot has to do with their parents. Half of it has to do with their parental experience but the parents willingness to listen to us when we make a recommendation.
It takes a couple of things, one of the attributes that I have found that these parents of these kids that are going to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford; one of the attributes that those parents have is that they are cheerleaders of their own kids success. The parents will send us updates, you’ll find out that these kids were already doing stuff. We helped elevate some of those kids. All things being equal and it just so happens that he/she went to the Galapagos Island with our program and studied at the Darwin Island and wrote about it in their application”.
I read a few testimonials and one in particular about Norman Hayes stood out because he had an academic scholarship but he played football as well and he came through another program you guys have, tell me a little more about that
Norman Hayes is going to Harvard, comes from a working class family that saved money. If Norman hadn’t gotten a scholarship he wouldn’t have been able to go there. He got an academic scholarship even though he was an awesome athlete. Norman played football and ran track in high school and almost didn’t go to Harvard with some help from Frank he was able to get in contact with the right people to make it more feasible for Norman.
In the case of Norman Frank Ski Kid’s Foundation helped facilitate entry into Harvard with trust from Norman’s parents at the same time to make this all possible. Tanya’s love for the art has taken exceptional kids out of the country to places like Brazil, Bahamas, and Italy. The Ski’s had a quote that’s been on my mind all weekend “unfaltering effort”. It’s an innate feature as well as being philanthropic as Frank explained. “It’s not for everybody. Some people make big donations and remain anonymous”, and he is right.
The Ski family has gone forward and given money in what he describes a “spiritual journey”. At this point in his career and personal life, it’s not something that he feels obligated to do but moreover a double blessing because he enjoys the work he does with the kids that in turn helps them. The same for his wife who incorporates her childhood passion that has stayed with her ever since. Their radio background and induction of charity work is rooted in the Baltimore radio culture. I mention this because they’ve been doing charitable work since the beginning. Next to their background and educational ties, Frank and Tonya have an innate genuine energy that cannot be fabricated.
“Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth” -Shirley Chisholm.
A special thanks to Felicia Ruiz for hosting me and making all of this happen!
