The Social Conscience of a Missionary

Dan had a lot of downtime, and he filled it with naps. During one, he says, he had a dream that he was in a gang that did good and helped people. When he woke up, the dream didn't dissipate. Instead, he founded the International Club of Friendship, based on the simple concept of using friendship as a development tool to connect the world. Dan asked his basketball team to hold ICOF nights, when people could donate food or money instead of buying tickets. He asked his friends to help, too.

Although some slackers joined just to find dates, a strong chapter developed in France. That summer, about fifteen people went on a humanitarian mission to Morocco, taking clothing and money raised at ICOF events. At the same time, a friend of Dan's from Haiti who was living in Dallas started the first ICOF chapter in the U.S. By Christmas 2004, the Dallas group had already sent a couple of members to Paris to share fundraising ideas. And Paris members took trips to the U.S. to explore opening ICOF chapters in Atlanta and Miami. A Miami chapter actually started up, but it quickly turned into more of a social club than a philanthropic outfit. Dan soon realized that he needed more than casual friendship to keep his idea going. He needed people with energy and dedication enough for the long haul.

On a trip home to Haiti in February 2005, Dan visited a friend who was raising a number of children he'd found abandoned in the street. Dan committed to sending $300 a month from the Paris ICOF chapter to support seven of the kids, but even that amount was difficult to raise. After seven months, Dan transformed the commitment into a scholarship program at his father's school, with $100 covering a student's tuition for a year, as well as a meal a day, books, school supplies and a uniform.

"A kid who eats well and doesn't go to school isn't helpful to Haiti," Dan says. "But a kid who is malnourished and still goes to school is better for Haiti's future."

Dan's brother, who was living in Atlanta and already hosting charitable events, signed on to continue doing so as an ICOF chapter. And by May 2006, the Paris chapter had raised enough money to purchase fifty professional sewing machines for women in Senegal. The plan called for creating a type of sewing co-op that would make clothes to be sold in Senegal and Mali, but it took a year before all the machines were transported to the desolate areas for which they were intended.

Dan realized that to take his dream to the next level, he'd have to give up basketball and leave Paris. "It got to a point where even at the meetings, I wasn't saying much anymore," he remembers. "Everything was already in place."

In August 2006, Dan returned to this country. At first he thought about settling in Miami, where his parents had bought a home to use as a base for their operation in this country, Grace International. But with its sizable immigrant population, Miami just didn't feel like the U.S. to Dan. From there he went to Atlanta, but that ICOF branch was doing just fine without him. So he moved on to Kansas and then to Denver, where another friend from Haiti was living.

In October 2006, Dan headed to LoDo. Looking around 5 Degrees one night, he saw a young, social scene that would be perfect for the ICOF message. So he settled here, selling furniture at American Furniture Warehouse during the day and recruiting members at night. None of his co-workers really cared about his dream. "Oh, okay, Oprah," they'd say when he talked about the Senegal project.

That December, Dan quit the forty-hour-a-week gig and took a part-time job with Catholic Charities, working in the youth department. He didn't know how he'd be able to pay his rent, but he knew he needed to surround himself with like-minded people. He soon added a second gig as an after-school coordinator for Beacons, a division of Catholic Charities, and started coaching kids at Rishel Middle School. That's where he met Stephanie.

A product of Denver Public Schools herself, Stephanie earned a master's degree in curriculum and instruction in social sciences from the University of Colorado Denver. She now works full-time as a DPS substitute teacher and teaches dance at the after-school program at Rishel.