Several years ago, I was attending a fund raising project and I had an opportunity to see a man I had met on several previous occasions, but I had never really been able to get to know him very well. He said that the company that he had been involved with was bringing in a new president and he asked me to give him a call and welcome him to San Diego.

     A couple of weeks later, I called Jim Amos and introduced myself to him over the phone. He invited me to come up to his office, but that he was doing a lot of traveling and it would be a couple of weeks before he would be able to set a time.

     It turned out that we had several common friends from the years that he spent in the Washington D.C. area where he was involved with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a consultant training company. Jim has had extensive experience in the franchising business, which is why he was brought in to run Mail Boxes, Etc., which is the largest non-food franchise company in the world.

     Jim told me about his military experience with the Marine Corp., and specifically with his experience of two different duty assignments in Vietnam. He then went over to his bookshelf and pulled this book titled “The Memorial” off the shelf and endorsed it over to me, a book he wrote trying to tell the Vietnamese experience as realistically as possible. Jim’s tours, in Vietnam, culminated with his receiving 12 decorations including that Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. “The Memorial”, was chosen by the American Librarian Association as “One of the best books of the year” in 1990. He is currently writing a third book, which he hopes to have completed in 2001.

     The second book Jim wrote, was titled “Focus or Failure” America at the Crossroads”. He was in the process of writing this book when I met him, and as he shared his concept with me, I started to understand his heart which for a macho, gung-ho Marine had great softness to it. He had gotten involved with the Goad family while on the east coast, and was working on putting together a vehicle which would be able to help them with their objective of providing after school programs for inner-city kids. He also felt that if a corporation can be put together for all sorts of children’s initiatives that the hearts of America could be changed one child at a time.

     It was with this intent that Jim asked me to come alongside of him to help form “MBE Foundation for Children’s Initiatives”. In September of 1998 a not for profit 501c.3 Corp. was incorporated and we started telling the story of the Foundation and shared with the over 4,000 franchises in the 60 countries, the idea that they could help by putting a small plastic box on each of their counters encouraging the customers to support Children’s Initiatives by putting coins into the box. Jim has further encouraged children through the foundation, to help make their dreams come true.