For this month’s article I was planning to talk about umbrella insurance, but something happened to me one morning on my way to work recently that caused me to change my topic.
 
A few weeks ago, I was invited by my friends David Thompson and Will Bunting to attend a breakfast at Port City Community Church for the Brigade Boys & Girls Club.
 
What I witnessed at this breakfast has moved me to use this space to invite and encourage everyone who is reading this to find a nonprofit organization in our community that you can believe in and help. I think that sometimes we all can lose sight of the desperate need that many of our young people have for a helping hand and an encouraging heart. In addition, I think we get bogged down in our daily lives and forget that each of us can and should, especially by working with others, help many of these young people and make a very positive difference in their lives.
 
If you really care about our community and about helping young people who really need help, and I think most of you do, then the Brigade Boys & Girls Club and similar organizations provide an opportunity for you to partner with others to make a significant difference in the lives of many young people.
 
Sitting at the tables with people like me at the breakfast were several beautiful children who are currently members of the Brigade Club. These are children with great potential who, without the help of organizations like the Brigade Club and people like you, will very likely wind up on the streets, living in poverty, and possibly end up in prison or worse.
 
One of the speakers at the breakfast was a young lady who has been a member of the Brigade Club for approximately a decade. For most of her young life, she was told every day that she was fat, ugly and worthless to the point that she believed those words and did not want to wake up another morning. She is now a rising junior at UNC Wilmington and an outstanding student. She gave a testimonial that, if you could have heard it, would have moved you to get involved.
 
After the breakfast, I returned to my job as an insurance agent, but with a resolve to up the ante and do more than I have been doing to help those who truly need help. I hope you will join me.
 
Jim Moore is the president of James E. Moore Insurance Agency. Established in 1954, it has become one of the most trusted independent insurance agencies in North Carolina. The James E. Moore Insurance Agency is a family-owned business and offers homeowners, automobile, life and health, employee benefits, and commercial insurance products. For more information, call 910.256.5333 or visit the agency’s website at www.jamesemoore.com.