Up until 2008, I thought I had it all.
I owned a limousine company that catered to an elite clientele, and life was good.
Then the financial crisis hit, and my business went under.
My wife would go to work, come home 12 hours later, and Im still in my pajamas.
My three kids were in their teens or older they had their own lives.
I got more and moreisolated and withdrawn.
Then I started reading about schools in low-income neighborhoods that didnt have even basic supplies.
How could this be happening in the richest city in the country?
One day, I decided I had to do something for these kids.
I took the train to the center of Harlem, walked into the first school I saw, P.S.
175, and told the principal I was there to help.
I started volunteering, welcoming the kids as they arrived in the morning and monitoring the lunchroom.
My entire world changed.
Gone was my self-pity.
There were plenty of fast-food places in the area but nowhere to gethealthy food.
I decided to make that my mission.
The parks department helped me get the rights to become its caretaker.
I call myself a Google gardener.
The idea took off from there.
I founded a nonprofit called Harlem Grown.
All I ask is sweat equity.
We pay for seeds, supplies and everything else through fundraising.
So its not just healthy food that were growing.
Were also helping parents to grow healthy and industrious kids.
We currently have 19 graduates of our elementary school program enrolled in universities.
I came into this thinking that when I had money, I had success.
But these kids truly changed the way I look at the world.
I didnt save them; they saved me.
Encourage engagement.People are more invested in a solution when they are part of it.
Look for partners.Donations are wonderful, but connections are better.
Tony Hillery, 63, wrote the childrens book Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood.
He lives in the Bronx, New York.
Hillerys nonprofit helps kids and families eat healthy.
