Orange Duffel Bag Initiative Celebrates 10 Years Coaching 1,500+ Students in Need to Succeed!

The Orange Duffel Bag Initiative (ODBI) — an Atlanta-based 501c3 nonprofit providing life plan coaching and ongoing advocacy for high school and college students experiencing homelessness, high poverty, or aging out of foster care — recognized its 10 Year Anniversary Saturday evening September 18, 2021, at The Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. The special event celebrating “Heart, Humanity, and Hope!” was sponsored by The Dr. H. Allen Ecker Family, The Lisle Family, JE Dunn Construction, JP Morgan, and BNY Mellon.

“The evening was a magnificent love letter to our students, coaches, partners, volunteers, donors, and board, to Sam Bracken, Coach Bill Curry, and the Ecker and Lisle families … and countless others who give of their time and heart to make a difference in the lives of our young people,” said Echo Garrett, ODBI co-founder.

The arc of the evening told ODBI’s story from inception to its bright orange future through inspirational video and individual speakers like Maria Oglesby, ODBI program graduate. “We are here at this moment celebrating something that is bigger than ourselves,” said Oglesby. “We celebrate the fact that despite our hardships … we have continued to excel and establish a legacy of excellence that will shine through each generation.”

LaBrittany Koger, ODBI program graduate, received a standing ovation for her performance of Be the One, a song written for the evening by ODBI officers Diana Black and Michael Daly. The lyrics reflect the Team Orange belief that “change will come” when we are the one to help the one. 

Bracken closed the evening with these words, “If we can put our differences aside, and emotions aside … and reach out to someone else with empathy, empathy always makes a difference. Surround yourself with positive powerful people, and there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.”

To learn more about ODBI, please visit https://www.theodbi.org. Since 2010, ODBI has graduated from its coaching programs more than 1,500 young people in need of diverse races, ethnicities, cultures, and gender identities. ODBI’s evidence- and trauma-informed coaching programs and ongoing advocacy help students improve their education and life outcomes and provide service to the community in a spirit of offering hope.

ODBI was inspired by co-founder Bracken’s experience as a homeless teen who earned a full-ride football scholarship to Georgia Tech, where he arrived with everything he owned packed in an orange duffel bag. ODBI’s curriculum is based on the transformational change process in the award-winning book My Orange Duffel Bag: A Journey to Radical Change.