Austin Tennis Academy News

May 8, 2008

Brilliants Place Giving First, Selfless Acts in Action

Henry Drummond’s essay The Greatest Thing in The World seeks to answer the question: “what is the summum bonum?”, the supreme good for one to covet? Drummond rambles through possible answers of family, religion, country and community, all failing after analysis. Drummond’s conclusion is that the The Greatest Thing in The World, the summum bonum, is the simple “expression of love”, doing good for other people.

Over the past two years, the Brilliant family, Academy students Greyson and Savannah, parents Jim and Stacie, and grandparents Arnold and Eileen Van Den Berg have been instrumental in spurring the Glimmer of Hope campaign, to date funding five wells that help provide vital clean water to remote villages in rural Ethiopia.

Inspired by the words of A Glimmer of Hope Foundation founder Donna Berber, Arnold and Eileen Van Den Berg first sponsored the construction of a well in 2006, built to honor the Helping Hand Home for Children, a non-profit organization that supports abused children. Additionally, the Van Den Berg’s funded another well in 2006. During the same period, Jim and Stacie Brilliant funded a “Brilliant Family” well, but these two wells were only the start of this family’s expression.

“No one should be thirsty,” the declarative proclamation of the Brilliants’ t-shirt set on a blooming tie-dye back-ground. In 2007, Grey and Sav, as their affectionately known around ATA, created the t-shirts illustrating the critical water shortage in Ethiopia. 12 year old Greyson and 10 year old Savannah took the lead, working with their schools’ administrators to help draw attention to the effort. By selling the t-shirts at school and committing the resources to a well project, the Brilliants not only helped hundreds of Ethiopians, they raised awareness of the global water crisis. With the proceeds, the young Brilliants  helped fund a well in honor of Linda Womack, a close friend of the Brilliants who recently succumbed to cancer.

Recently, Greyson and Savannah Brilliant sought to honor their grandmother, Eileen Van Den Berg for the selfless values of service that she and grandfather Arnold have instilled in them. Already familiar with the ‘Playing for Glimmer’ campaign through their grandparents’ involvement and the Austin Tennis Academy, Savannah and Greyson met with Director of Social Investment Eric Schmidhauser from A Glimmer of Hope Foundation in order to dually honor Eileen and help serve the interests of those in need. The path Savannah and Greyson selected required personal sacrifice.

Greyson and Savannah decided to help finance a water well in the Worebtie village of the Amhara region in Ethiopia. In order to tackle an endeavor of this magnitude, Savannah and Greyson sacrificed their holiday presents completely, committing those resources to the construction of a hand-dug water well in Eileen Van Den Berg’s honor.

This well serves approximately 250 beneficiaries in the Woretbie village, providing water and allowing time and energy for kids to go to school and women to engage in more productive activities. The well has transformed the lives of the people living in this rural village. In Mr. Schmidhauser’s words to Grey and Sav: “your willingness to give up your holiday gifts to provide the gift of clean water to those in need thousands of miles away is an amazing inspiration for others to follow.”

Savannah and Greyson, and the Brilliant and Van Den Berg family expressed love in several directions at once. And, they personally sacrificed in order to accomplish this goal. Funding five wells, each person acted with a willingness to lead towards a noble objective, important from any individual and especially courageous from youth. Savannah and Greyson embody ATA’s commitment to excellence in every aspect of life and the realization of Drummond’s summum bonum.

See the full slideshow of pictures here.

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