By Kevin Perry

Being a mentor to others has never been anything I had ever considered in my life, yet life always has always confronted me with the challenges and aspirations that I never thought were even possible. Though as I walk through this life, I made a realization that not only does my life matter, so do the lives of others —especially the lives of our young people growing up currently.

Alpha Foundation Inc., in its quest to start a legacy project to connect our current generation to the work of our previous generations work so that they may embrace it in order to move forward in a more positive way, and to raise money for The Davon Betties-Whitlock Life & Career Center one of my mentees and one of the four victims in the 2015 Harding Street Murders, we have embraced the spirit of Sankofa to which the Legends Ball is born. We hosted our third annual Legends Ball at Martin University on Sept. 21, 2019.

We began our legacy project in 2017 inspired by the many great leaders of my childhood such as the late Dr. Mozel Sanders, who I helped with the first Thanksgiving dinner giveaway. Also, the late Andrew (Bo) Foster who owns the Foster Motel where we prepared the dinner for the first dinner giveaway.

When I walk the hallway on the second floor of Martin University as an proud alumni and look at all the photos I am reminded of all those who have inspired so many such as myself, and how they dedicated their lives to helping to move our community forward in a positive way.

This year we had the privilege of honoring our city’s educators who far too often get no recognition at all and are very under appreciated as well as being under paid. There is no greater servant leader than a teacher dedicated to empowering others with knowledge.

Our 2019 Living Legend Dr. Eugene G. White, who is a true living legend by all rights. He has grown two school districts in our city (Washington Township and IPS), and recently retired as president of Martin University. He is truly an inspiration to all those entering the field of education. He has been my mentor for the past several years and has taught me so many things about life in general. I truly owe him a debt of gratitude for embracing our Legends Ball and supporting it from its conception and for teaching me how to play golf. And, he helped me grow in so many other areas of my life, but most importantly, he taught me how to make critical decisions.

Alpha Foundation has dedicated over two decades to empowering our at-risk youth and adults, and we need your support to continue to provide those services. If you wish to volunteer or make a donation, please feel free to contact us at 317-698-5645 , keviperry53@gmail.com., or visit our website at www.alphayouth.org for further information and to make a donation on line

This article originally appeared in The Indianapolis Recorder.

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