Many of you who know me have heard me speak of my brother, Daniel. He is the middle of the five Blake children and displayed quintessential middle child symptoms from a young age. For example, he comes from a family of avid skiers and to make his own way in the world became the first Blake to ever snowboard.
But unlike most middle children who takes up deviations to define themselves against the canvas of their family or in order to gain attention, Dan began to chart a truly atypical and unique course, one which, I am sure, will end with him saving the world.
In high school Dan made an impact. His platform was Operation Smile. He became involved at a young age through the local chapter. In time he transformed what OpSmile was to our school, Lone Peak, and our community. It went from being a well intentioned, quite, non-profit chapter that students involved themselves in to stay well rounded, involved, and college-ready, to being a formidable force in the community, known by all students and most adults. In high school he raised $200,000 for medical surgeries for the organization, served a medical mission to Jordan, and lead and trained thousands of other students on how to make an impact.
And now he is at it again. This year Dan returned from his two-year LDS mission in Puerto Rico. He immediately got to it again. This time he started his own non-profit, Impact International. Its mission is to empower students to change the world in leveraged ways through partnerships with highly effective non-profit missions. And so far it is working.
Impact was recently featured by KBYU. They don't have a link to embed the video, so you can see the feature be following this link. Please share these links with any high school or college students that you know that might be interested in learning more about how to get involved. Impact is starting school-based chapters throughout the nation and is already truly creating significant opportunities for students to change the world.
You can comment here or contact me at david.blake (at) yahoo.com for more information.
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