It’s true. We in the quote-unquote “media” are often far more concerned with negative stories than positive ones.
There’s an old saying in this business: If it bleeds, it leads. And sadly, in many cases, that’s true.
Scandals, fines, messy resignations, court battles. We love it all. And don’t even get me started on this dumpster fire within a dumpster fire within a dumpster fire of an election.
Far too often, good things are happening quietly while bad things happen loudly.
Well, one of those good things is happening in the mortgage business right now and it deserves just as much attention as some of the other messy stuff we report about all the time.
Movement Mortgage and its CEO, Casey Crawford, are doing something remarkable and it has nothing to do with mortgage lending.
Crawford and Movement Mortgage, through the Movement Foundation, which Crawford founded in 2012, are funding a new charter school in one of the most economically challenged areas of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Movement Mortgage provides many more details on its website, but here’s a brief look at the work that the Movement Foundation is doing:
From Movement’s blog:
How can we help more families break the cycle of poverty? And how can we do it in a sustainable, accessible and scalable way?
Those were the questions former NFL tight end and Super Bowl champion Casey Crawford pondered as he retired from football, began building a business and looked for ways to spark positive change in his adopted hometown of Charlotte, N.C.
He found the answers in Movement School, a new public charter school that brings business, education and nonprofit efforts together to make a lasting impact on communities.
Movement School is a groundbreaking cooperative between the Movement Foundation, Sugar Creek Charter School and the state of North Carolina. The result will be a new tuition-free public charter school that will open in 2017 for 300 students in west Charlotte. Crawford’s Movement Foundation is investing $12 million in startup costs for the school; its academic program is being developed from Sugar Creek Charter’s award-winning example; and a North Carolina public school charter is assuring a tuition-free, state-sanctioned education.
According to the blog, the school will open in the fall of next year for students in kindergarten, first and second grade, and will then add a new grade each subsequent school year.
The blog goes on to discuss the value that Crawford places on education and how he got the idea to found the Movement School, which he hopes to expand beyond Charlotte.
Crawford and the Movement Foundation have already helped another charter school in the area build a new high school, and the Movement School will take much of its educational mission from that school, Sugar Creek Charter.
From the Movement blog:
Sugar Creek was founded in 1999 by a cohort of leaders, including former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot, to address the needs of children living below the poverty line in northwest Charlotte. Today, it serves 1,500 children preschool through high school and is widely recognized as one of the state’s top-performing charter schools.
Sugar Creek, led by principal Cheryl Turner, focuses on individual instruction and character education, teaching students both academics and life skills. The school’s waiting list is 500 names long.
Now, Crawford and the Movement Foundation will bring Sugar Creek’s model to another economically distressed area of Charlotte.
Again from the Movement blog:
For Crawford, Movement School is about building new hope in young children and encouraging them to reach their full potential. He says once Movement School is well established in Charlotte, he hopes to expand the model to other cities.
“Every child should be loved and cared for because they have intrinsic value given to them by a creator God. Education unlocks so much of that potential,” Crawford says. “We want to see those God-given gifts, talents and abilities nurtured and developed in our kids so they can become all God created them to be.”
If you want to read more about the Movement School, click here.
And, how about a hearty round of applause and a pat on the back for Crawford and Movement Mortgage? They more than deserve it.
