All I wanted was the Wells Fargo gray pony I saw at my branch in Pacific Palisades, but I had to open a checking account to get it. Fortunately, our Young Angels Tuskegee scholarship winner, Matthew Stewart, was in town for Christmas break and was game to let me open an account for him  Duh.  I deposited the requisite fifty dollars and told him to go crazy.  Now I can easily transfer funds to his account.  Not that I’m rolling in dough, but the occasional twenty does cross my path. The kid’s going to need gas money starting next week when he moves to South Carolina to work for BMW for a semester.  So proud.

Matthew’s tuition is an on-going adventure for the entire board of Young Angels of America, not to mention Matt’s mom, Linda.  Mary Cossette gives an annual chunk, then we all we scramble for the rest.  Let’s just say I know the names of the bursar at Tuskegee as well as the actual cashiers.  

In January, though, we’re drilling down on our POWER IN THE SHOWER shampoo fundraiser.  Arbonne, International, makes a dandy daily shampoo, and the sale of 10,000 bottles of the stuff yields pretty close to a year’s tuition. 

Board member Bridget Stennis, pictured below with her Air Force daughter, Camille, says, “The good news is everyone takes a shower and washes their hair.”  

Fantastic, I say.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Have a clean new year.

So I got the stuffed, gray adorable equine baby I wanted, but I couldn’t keep it. Matthew was getting on a plane the next day, going to new BMW housing, and I it seemed like that damn pony wanted to go with him.  I could tell he wanted it.  He’s only nineteen, after all.

 (L-R) Banker Justin Green, mechanical engineering scholar Matthew Stewart, Brook Dougherty