Zephaniah Coleman boldly declares his mission on his Twitter page:
“I live a blessed life and will always strive to bless somebody else.”
This 22-year old college senior is dedicated to changing the world around him by serving his community.
This election season Zephaniah and his 19-year old sister, Franquette are encouraging citizens to “Go and Vote.” Zephaniah and Franquette are promoting President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign for re-election by creating this custom made song with their mother. Zephaniah says that he’s committed to getting everyone involved because the President cannot do it alone.
“What we wanted to do was inspire people and tell them that you know that the President can’t do it by himself. You need to make change in your life first and as you do that the country as the whole becomes better,” Zephaniah said.
This is not the first time Zephaniah and 4 his siblings have been a part of the political process. During the 2008 election, Zephaniah and his siblings created the C5 Coleman Love Foundation, a non-profit, humanitarian-geared foundation committed to serving people in their community and across the globe. After starting the foundation the Coleman children authored a book entitled “Where Does Change Begin?” and created an accompanying workbook called “365 Days of Change.” Zephaniah says that their goal was to provide people with the tools to change their own lives through seven categories.
“Some of the different categories are financial, spiritual, social, just a few different categories that if you make one minor change daily for 365 days, by the end of that year you should have something majorly changed in your life and that’s the message we preach to people,” he said.
The sale of the books help fund many of their foundation’s projects including providing heaters and air conditioners for the less fortunate in Houston and to assist in mission work overseas.
Zephaniah credits the ministry of his own parents, Ronnie and Julie Coleman as the inspiration behind his work and the work of the C5 Coleman Love Foundation.
“My family is really a family of givers. I’ve always seen my parents, from me being a little child giving because they’re pastors. In effect, it helped me gain a passion for really caring about people and helping people, “Zephaniah reflected.
He recalls spending Christmas Day giving toys to less fortunate kids rather than being at home opening his own.
Zephaniah said that the most impactful service he and his family participated in was helping families affected by Hurricane Katrina.
“We actually help secure about over $150,000 worth of different items like mattresses, shoes, clothes, just things like that to give out to the people to help them, “he said. “We were able to help really over about 500 people over the time frame of about a year and a half to two years.”
Although the family and foundation have several major projects in the works, they are focused on getting President Obama re-elected through the message in their song.
“We’re just trying to reach a different crop of people to really try to re-inspire them to get back out to the polls during the election and get President Obama re-elected because we really feel like he is the best candidate for the job and we want to see him back in office,” he said.
The C5 Coleman Love Foundation is taking their mission along the campaign trial to help register voters and get them to the polls. Coincidentally, their planned tour corresponds with President Obama’s bus tour.
“We’re going to raise funds to actually travel to some of the battleground states like Ohio and Florida for example. We’re going to have voter registration drives and rallies to raise support and reignite the inspiration and excitement of getting Obama reelected,” he explained.
The foundation also plans to give away gift cards through a raffle that will help provide transportation and proper voter ID for citizens.
Zephaniah is looking forward to completing his college coursework this December from Prairie View A&M University with a degree in Business Management. He plans to capitalize on his family’s entrepreneur spirit to continue the goals of the foundation.
“Go and Vote” can be viewed on YouTube and is available for download on iTunes and the Google Music Store. You can also contribute to the C5 Coleman Love Foundation and purchase their book and workbook by logging on to http://c5coleman.bbnow.org. All proceeds contribute to the C5 Coleman Love Foundation.
