Today we’d like to introduce you to David Welborn.
Hi David, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
What started as a volunteer opportunity as part of a required “senior service” project at DeSmet Jesuit High in St. Louis in 1980 grew into a life-changing adventure of living and learning. It greatly shaped my life and made me who I am. As a Catholic Jesuit Education Institution, DeSmet, like Saint Louis University High School and Saint Louis University, prides itself on creating “men for others.” It was a guiding principle and intertwined in everything it did.
As part of this program, I volunteered at Litzinger Special School in Frontenac, MO, where I was assigned to work in a class with youngsters with physical disabilities. On my first day, I was asked to work with Scott, a 9-year-old struggling with a progressive muscle disease. He was getting weaker and falling a lot. He required long leg braces and a wheelchair to assist his mobility. Scott was frustrated and was having behavioral issues. The teacher thought I could help him. At the time, I had little or no experience assisting individuals with physical disabilities, but I was willing to learn. I learned a lot, and Scott and I hit it off. We remained close friends for more than 40 years.
At the end of May, right before graduation, Scott asked me if I could be his counselor at the upcoming Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Summer camp. MDA Summer Camp is a week-long camp designed for kids with muscle diseases to forget about their “disabilities” and focus on just being kids. Figuring I could put my budding career as a cook at a local chicken shack on hold for a week, I nervously said yes and joined the other 25-30 volunteers. Scott was thrilled that I could go and was most excited for me to meet his best friend at camp, an 8-year-old named Benji. Scott and Benji were best friends and opposites (Scott was loud, and Benji was more reserved and a bit shy), but they both had a love for life, and together they had a big impact on everyone they met, including me.
At the end of the week, it was the custom for counselors and campers to sit around the campfire and sign each other’s yearbooks. Benji asked Welborn to sign his and vice versa. Benji had a hard time figuring out what to write. I told him to say something about what he would do for the rest of the summer. Benji wrote two words, “Have Fun.” I added to Benji’s yearbook “Be Happy!”
That week at camp changed my life. And those four words – “Have Fun. Be Happy” became my mantra as I decided to seek out an in nonprofit management where I could help people of all abilities have fun and be happy. I continued volunteering at the MDA camp for nearly 30 more years through my public relations career at St. Louis Children’s and Cardinal Glennon Children’s hospitals. I later became Regional Director for MDA, where I spent 13+ years setting the table for working for and consulting with other nonprofit organizations, including KEEN St. Louis, JDRF, and Unlimited Play. I also had the opportunity to serve as a “wish granter” for Make-A-Wish Foundation, another eye-opening and life-altering experience.
Throughout it all, I remained close with Scott, Benji, and many other kids/young adults living with muscle diseases. They became part of my extended family. Sadly, Benji passed away in 2005 at the age of 33, and Scott passed away in 2022 at the age of 51! They both made everyone they knew better. Their spirit lives on.
In 2017, I wanted to do something to honor Benji and Scott and the others, living or deceased, that I have been fortunate to have gotten to know. That year, I created a nonprofit organization called MO Better Foundation. Our mission is simple, to help make the lives of Missouri kids and adults living with physical disabilities have more fun, be happier, and live life “better.”
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Creating any business from the ground up takes work, especially for a nonprofit organization with minimal resources. There have been a lot of struggles along the way, personally and professionally, especially in the past few years. Like many small businesses, the Pandemic was still a challenge as in-person awareness and fundraising events were put on hold at a time when people needed our help most. That said, our mission is important, and we are moving forward full speed ahead.
Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your business.
MO Better Foundation (www.mobetter.org) is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that helps enhance the quality of life of Missourians with physical disabilities. With the support of a caring community, we provide funds to aid in purchasing items to assist in daily living -particularly items related to technology, transportation, and mobility. We do not receive government funds and rely exclusively on the support of businesses, individuals, and groups. MO Better provides help when no other funding source is available or other funding sources are not adequate to cover the costs of the needed assistive technology or access modifications.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mobetter.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mo_better_foundation/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MObetter.org
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mo-better-foundation/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MOBetter_Found
