About this initiative

The Look & Live program was inspired by an experience our Founder had as a young girl. At about 10 years old, Renée's mother took she and her twin sister Renita on an outing. The three of them took a short bus ride to the metro train station. After getting on the train, they rode for what to the young girls seemed like a long time. Yet in exiting the train, the trio's traveling was not over. Marguerite and her twin girls walked a short distance to a bus stop and embarked on what would be their second bus. After a while, this proud mother and her two young girls got off the bus. "Now let's walk," Marguerite jubilantly directed. As they walked, the girls' eyes were filled with interest. Looking around, they saw large homes with immaculate lawns and flowerbeds. Driveways had bicycles and scooters laying about. There were beautiful shops with display windows that were unfettered with iron bars. This was in stark contrast to the blocks of apartment buildings, grassless yards and storefront shops they were used to. Then what felt all too sudden, the girls heard: "Ok, let's go. It's time to get back to the bus stop." The girls looked both confused and disappointed, but it was Renée who protested: "But we haven't bought anything!" "Look up, look up and live" were the next words they heard their mother say as she rushed them back to the very bus stop they had not that long departed from. Marguerite, although having two jobs, made time to plant vision into her children. It was now time for her to get back to work. This snapshot moment made a lifelong imprint in Renée.

Look Up & Live

The Look Up & Live initiative is a tribute to our Founder's mother. Marguerite Johnson McGee Hibbler went back to school at night to obtain her high school diploma after having birthed 10 children and while she worked two jobs! Why? Because Marguerite had a vision of better for herself and for her children.

It was decades later before our Founder understood the seed her mother had planted. The message: Look beyond your present circumstances to better things. Look up to find help and strength to keep moving forward, to keep demanding of yourself to pursue a better existence. The experience that day remains with Renée still today.