Proceeds from the breakfast will go to The Bridge, Dallas’ multiservice campus that serves the homeless, where MDHA’s consortium of organizations combating homelessness collaborate to provide essential services that folks need when working to get back on their feet. The Bridge is the largest homeless outreach and food pantry in all of Texas. I’m looking forward to learning “what they do, and how they do it.” In these days of financial and housing industry chaos and dislocation, we’re all reminded of the old phrase “there but for the grace of God go I”. As someone who once found himself and his son seeking the assistance of Cecil Williams and Glide Memorial Church’s shelter and kitchen in San Francisco, I recognize the vital purpose of organizations like MDHA and Glide in our communities. I admire the folks in organizations such as MDHA, who don’t bother to deny the precarious nature of our mortal lives on this planet, or waste time affixing blame for the problems of society, but simply roll up their sleeves and do what they can to address the obvious needs in their communities.

The Bridge has been widely recognized for its innovative approach to homeless services, including receiving the US Conference of Mayors’ City Livability Award earlier this year. South Africa’s Tshwane Leadership Foundation recognized The Bridge’s architects, Overland Partners, with an international design award honoring their efforts to raise awareness of homelessness while implementing a new architectural language and visual dialogue about the issue.

Mike Rawlings, former city of Dallas homeless czar and former chairman of MDHA, will be honored at the breakfast with the 2010 Bridge Builder Award presented by Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert. More information on participants in the event can be found in this Dallas Morning News article.

You can find further details regarding the breakfast fundraiser and MDHA’s other upcoming events on our speaking page and MDHA’s events page.

And speaking of Dallas, I’ve been a closet Cowboys fan forever. 1-5: Ouch! If “the ‘Boys” don’t turn this season around NOW, Jerry Jones will be foreclosed on! Yikes!

I’ve received news that the folks at Eyebobs have announced a special promotion running from November 1 to December 31, in which they’ve increased to 75% the percentage of the proceeds of all sales of the Chris Gardner Eyebobs model that will benefit Glide. They’ve also put a big button on that page and the Eyebobs home page to make a contribution to Glide. Anyone who contributes $20 or more to Glide via the Eyebobs site will be entered to win one of 15 autographed copies of my autobiography The Pursuit of Happyness.

During the first half of October I made a very interesting and fulfilling trip to Africa, where I had been invited to speak at events in Ghana and South Africa. First on the agenda was the Amicus Youth Empowerment Summit in Ghana, which was attended by over 2,000 young people. I was able to share with them the common threads of the American/Ghanian dream. I’d like to thank Father Caesar Atuire for inviting me to speak at this marvelous event.

Later in Ghana I was honored by being made a ‘Chief’ twice in the same day. AWESOME. I’ve never experienced anything like it, and most importantly I was able to share it with my daughter, Jacintha.

Finally we visited Fort Williams, an infamous “point of no return” where slave ships were loaded. There are no words.

You can find a number of news articles and web links about my stay in Ghana on our press page. Below is a photo featuring my daughter and me at one of the ceremonies where we were made honorary Chiefs. Wow!

Performers at the festival will include Angelique Kidjo, Tito Jackson, and Chicago’s own Chaka Khan. Check out the festival website for more information on all the events and activities that are part of the festival. The festival is a project of Africa International House.

You can view some photos of a fundraiser I hosted for the festival at Egami Photos.

The June 14 issue of Jet magazine has a brief “designer spotlight” that features my thoughts on the Eyebobs design, which are a response to the difficulty in finding fashionable reading glasses for men. Our press page has a link to the article.

Truly the best thing about these glasses is that a portion of the proceeds go to Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Those of you who’ve seen The Pursuit of Happyness may know Glide as the homeless shelter and soup kitchen that assisted my son and me during our period of homelessness in the early 1980s. Glide today continues the work helping the community that the church and its pastor Rev. Cecil Williams have been committed to for nearly 50 years. If you’re not interested in the eyeglasses but would like to help Glide, you can contribute at the Glide website.

While speaking there, the folks at TechTown had a number of artists stand behind me and sketch their impressions of what I was saying on a whiteboard as I spoke. Recently they sent me photos of the artwork that was created, and I was very impressed with the work the artists spontaneously created to illustrate my speech.

I’d like to share all this artwork with you, and have instructed my staff to obtain clearance with TechTown and obtain the names of all the artists so they can be properly credited. In the meantime, here’s a little sample:

Sponsors of my speaking appearances are free to use these photos in your publicity efforts. Please add a “photo by Steve Fenn” credit where applicable. High resolution versions of the photos are available by clicking the appropriate link after you click the thumbnail image.