Meet Julia

D.I.G. develops STEM opportunities to further rural growth and development through education, mentorship, recreation, and community engagement. The founder, Steven Brown, and his wife Michelle are dear friends of ours. I met Steven more than a decade ago as we worked together at Fluor in Greenville, SC. Steven, my husband Matt, and I then all worked on a government project in Afghanistan. Upon our return, Steven, an engineer, began telling me about his passion for the kids in the rural parts of South Carolina where he grew up and asked me to look over his business plan. Steven was fortunate to play football at the University of South Carolina and earn an engineering degree, but the kids from his extremely rural and impoverished hometown are not afforded the same opportunities. Through D.I.G, Steven and his team created after school programs, summer programs, and now the largest festival to ever take place in the small town of Williston, SC – all focused on science, technology, engineering, and math. I love following D.I.G on social media to see the kids learn, play, and build confidence in a supportive environment – we need so much more of this! We support Steven and Michelle in everything they do!

Attitudes and Attire is dedicated to promoting personal growth for women seeking self-sufficiency. I have the honor of serving as vice president on the board of directors at Attitudes & Attire. We help women who are homeless, recovering addicts, or just down on their luck, get organized, energized, and back on their feet. One way we do that is by helping them develop job skills, confidence, and providing them with an outfit to interview in. One of my favorite services is our Hopeful Smiles program. We partner with local dentists to give free chair time to women who have gone through our programs. These women are usually in dire need of dental care from drug abuse or physical abuse. It’s really special to give someone their smile back! One of our most popular benefits is the Boots to Heels program which helps female veterans gain self-esteem after traumatic events and also helps them cope with entering the civilian workplace. Lyn Berman, the founder and executive director founded the organization in 1996 and she is one of the best human beings I know. She has a servant’s heart and is always strategizing on how to make the agency better. She truly brings out the best in people. We have been proud supporters of Attitudes and Attire for nearly 5 years!

The Hope Clinic of McKinney is a faith-based medical clinic that provides free health care services and resources to low-income, uninsured McKinney, TX residents. They offer comprehensive health care services from pediatric care, to physical therapy, to dermatology and counseling. One of our dear friends volunteers at the Hope Clinic every week and invited us to their annual fundraising event (where we went crazy on the silent auction, like we always do!). There we met Caitlin Twyman, the executive director and her husband Stephen, who is a doctor and of course a volunteer at the clinic. They invited us to dinner in their home which was so unique in the current days of mostly virtual connections. Our daughters are the same age so they played while we learned so much about the Hope Clinic. Caitlin and Stephen truly live out the mission and values of the Hope Clinic, day in and day out. They were so transparent and we could feel the passion for the clinic radiating from both of them. We can not wait to begin a relationship with the Hope Clinic!