One
Good
Kean's Be the Change
Group Helps Out
Local Hero
H
ow do you properly honor a man whose courage and quick thinking
may have saved lives?
If you are members of Kean University’s Be The Change organization,
you take him out to dinner. You help him find permanent housing. You
provide items to help furnish his apartment.
You do anything you can do, to help.
That is exactly what Be The Change members did when they tracked
down Lee Parker, the man who found a backpack full of explosives near
the Elizabeth train station on September 18, 2016. The discovery was
connected to a series of bombs also left in Manhattan and Seaside Park
that captivated the nation. Parker and a friend, Navy veteran Ivan White,
found the backpack and bravely moved it to a less-populated area
before notifying the Elizabeth Police Department.
Be The Change is a community service and activism group founded by Dr.
Norma Bowe at Kean in 2008. The group has attracted attention from the
national media andwas selected by the Clinton Global Initiative University
as an exhibitor at their 2015 annual meeting. Be The Change now boasts
almost 1,000 members and has extended beyond the Kean campus.
Bowe, who as part of her tireless work in the area has amassed a network
of connections in the communities surrounding Kean, was able to track
down Parker and White before any of the major media outlets were able
to locate the heroic duo.
That’s when Be The Change got to work.
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KEANmag
Members of the group were moved by Parker’s struggles after Hurricane
Sandy, which left him unemployed and eventually homeless. As Parker
told Kean’s student newspaper
The Tower
, “We’re all just one paycheck
away. When the stormhit, one thing led to another. I was unemployed for a
while and exhausted the unemployment benefits and found myself here.”
Be The Change members took Parker to dinner at Algarve, a local
Portuguese restaurant and favorite of the Kean community. Jessica
Fernandez, a member of Be the Change and Dr. Bowe’s graduate
assistant, described Parker as “a very humble, sweet man.”
The help did not end with just a steak dinner. Be The Change also put
Parker up at a hotel until he could find permanent housing and a job as
a forklift operator at a local supermarket. To assist with the commute to
work, the group also provided Parker with a bicycle, which he refers to
now as his “whip.”
At an Elizabeth City Hall
ceremony on September
27, Parker and White were
given the keys to the city
by Mayor Chris Bollwage.
Bollwage also took time to
thank Be The Change “who
stepped forward to help”.
Turn
(above) Members of Be the Change are pictured giving a shirt and other items to Lee
Parker, who discovered pipe bombs in an abandoned backpack. (right) The next day
a photo of Lee Parker, wearing his Be the Change shirt, and his friend Ivan White
appeared in The New York Times. (photo by Bryan Anselm for The New York Times)
Elizabeth Mayor Chis Bollwage '81, '89, H'02
speaks at a press conference along side U.S.
Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez.
