Michael Morgan: Giving Customers & Our Black Kids Lots Of Reasons To Smile by Van Stone frontpagenews1@yahoo.com (267) 293-9201

Michael Morgan: Giving Customers & Our Black Kids Lots Of Reasons To Smile by Van Stone frontpagenews1@yahoo.com (267) 293-9201

Michael Morgan - Photo by Joel Perlish Photography

Michael Morgan was born in Raleigh, NC, August 29, 1966 to Black American parents, Earl Morgan Sr. and Barbara Morgan. He is the fifth of ten children. As a student at Overbrook High School, he excelled academically. Being placed in a business administration course in his freshman year he began his work career as a Disability Benefits Specialists for the Social Security Administration. He also had a paper route in his neighborhood working with youth and used that route to begin his own volunteer work for the elderly. That work included cleaning their houses, landscaping, trash removal, snow removal, grocery shopping, and a host of other responsibilities.

After graduating from Overbrook High School in 1984 as one of the fastest typist in the nation, Michael furthered his career as a tax consultant for the IRS. After a brief military career he went to work for the University of Penn Dental School as the Coordinator where he led children who resided in the Southwest Philadelphia community to better understand the importance of pediatric dentistry and the early intervention for maintaining healthy teeth. However, while he was at the dental school, from 1991 to 1998, Michael watched how crime was beginning to deteriorate the campus area. He visibly witnessed the murder of an African American undergraduate student. Michael used his prior background in volunteer work to volunteer to assist youth violence reduction in the campus area. He became the Head Mentor for the incoming African American Undergraduate class to help build up and restore the declining morale in the West Philadelphia area.

In 1998 Michael began to turn his attention to Van Stone Productions (VSP) Foundation because the nonprofit was working with groups in the South Philadelphia communities such as the Christian Street YMCA. For the next ten years Michael encouraged the healthy development of youth, and volunteered to work with the YMCA’s national Healthy Kids Day, the nation’s largest health day care for kids and families. It was easy for him to talk to children about the benefit of having good oral health from infancy through teenage years and emphasize the importance of play in keeping kids healthy and happy.

This work influenced him into a legal direction and in 1998 he graduated with a bachelor's in paralegal studies. With a newfound inspiration he used his legal background to volunteer with several law firms in multi-district litigation cases for product liability and unemployment compensation. And from 2000 to 2005 Michael did some volunteering with Women Against Abuse and the Homeless Advocacy Group.

Unfortunately a set back occurred in Morgan’s life in 2001. Tragedy struck when a motor vehicle accident left him with 12 herniated discs, 4 pinched nerves, a traumatized pancreas, uncontrolled diabetes, the amputation of two toes on his right foot, and a host of other infirmities. But Mike fully rebounded in 2006 to resume volunteering with the Diabetes Foundation. Michael is the owner of Morgan's Transportation and still lives and volunteers in both the Southwest and South Philadelphia area.