When two medical and financial crises backed high school student Sy Green’s family into a corner, he didn’t know to whom he would turn for help with his pricey private school tuition.
Never did he think his financial troubles would end up helping hundreds of men in prison. But that’s just what happened.
It all started with a book club, hosted within the Correctional Training Facility of Soledad State Prison. In partnership with Sy’s high school, the book club was where he met compassionate men, willing to mentor youth to excel in life.
The club roster included “brothers in blue” Jason Bryant – a former Soledad inmate – and Ted Gray, who each wanted to do something significant for a student in need. And so a monumental campaign began.
Word of Sy’s predicament spread fast, and pretty soon brothers were sacrificing upwards of a month’s worth of pay – a sad $100 – to amass an astonishing $30,000 scholarship to support Sy’s continued education!
“We're just people who want to do good things," Bryant told CNN.
“Beyond the scholarship, the knowledge that they pour into you … that's the best thing," adds Sy. "They definitely take my future serious[ly] and they genuinely do care about me as a person."