Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
Date: Oct 29, 2009 - # 9944 - Title: Sam’s
“My Orange Duffle Bag – A Journey to Radical Change” (825)
Would
you be grateful if your first book was just published and one of the most successful authors in recent years wrote the following
promo for your book: “Change is hard? Everyone wants it. So few get it! In this one-of-a-kind book, Sam lays out a fool
proof, step-by-step approach to change through sharing his own remarkable journey from victim to conqueror?” You bet
you would!
That is what happened to Sam Bracken as his first book, “My Orange Duffel Bag, A Journey to Radical Change,”
was being printed. Sam Bracken’s name is familiar to many here in Cherokee County as a recent candidate for the county
school board and for his involvement in the Etowah football program to support son Beau then on the 8th grade team,
and in other local sports programs. Georgia Tech’s football fans will remember Sam as number 67 on Tech’s championship
team of 1985, the team that played in the All American Bowl in Birmingham against my alma mater Michigan State University.
The successful author who wrote the above promo for Sam’s book was world renowned Stephen R. Covey, author of
“7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and dozens of other successful motivational books.
Sam’s first book is a book on how he, by personal determination and with the help of many, including God, who
saw potential in Sam, over came being told he was not wanted (a child of rape), the dredges of poverty, a drug drenched home
life, drug and motorcycle gangs, prostitution and finally told by his mother to leave – with her parting words “Sam,
you will thank me some day for his.” He did, but no child of God should ever have to go through what Sam went through
during his childhood.
While “My Orange Duffel Bag, A Journey to Radical Change” is the story of how Sam overcame those obstacles
that literally crush and defeat thousands it was written for the benefit of those thousands in today’s society who have
been tossed out by their families and are now locked into the nation’s foster care system. But more importantly it is
the story of how Sam reached out to others, accepted their offers of help, and reached outward and upward, dream by dream,
to where today he gives motivational speeches worldwide, always returning home to a loving family, wife Kim and four children.
After vividly
describing his life until he was abandoned by his mother, at age 15, Sam then begins to express how he felt while laying on
the track totally exhausted before realizing that if he was going to survive he was going to have to change the direction
of his life or forever be locked into the losers world from whence he came. Sam cleverly uses modern publishing technology
to produce a beautiful and easily read motivational book.
Sam visited Joan and me last week to preview his new book with us and to talk
about what he perceives as his audience – those unwanted children, as he was, and those abandoned children that end
up in foster care. He wanted to reach ‘the unreachable’ and to help them understand that they can, with help,
overcome their seemingly insurmountable obstacles and find “purpose, love, and peace of mind.”
Sam, in researching for
his book, quoted statistics that will make most shutter. He said that here in Georgia four percent of the approximately 15,000
children in foster care op-out of the system each year and that less than half of these op-out children will graduate from
high school; will become homeless within six months and because they are not self-reliant they end up in one of our state’s
“Monuments of Ignorance,” our jails. What a waste of human life!
Two thirds of his book is devoted to explaining how the seven proven
principles of positive change – desire, awareness, meaning, choice, love, change, and gratitude – helped him move
from “victim to conqueror.”
Sam expresses his
gratitude for those who helped him along his journey, especially for Coach Bill Curry, who, after taking Sam into Tech’s
football program, never abandoned him and helped him adjust to Tech’s many different challenges of being a new student
athlete before finally being inducted into Tech’s ANAK program. Sam came into our (Joan and me) life in 1981 soon after
he arrived at Tech. We invited him home for breakfast one Sunday then gave Sam a home away from Tech. He became in unofficial
member of our family and his children now call us their grandparents. A real tribute to our family!
Sam Bracken’s ‘My Orange Duffel Bag,
A Journey to Radical Change’ is more than a book for foster children; it is a book that will benefit millions, at all
levels of society. I know many who will benefit from Sam’s book. It’s a winner and can be reviewed and ordered
at www.sambracken.com . Sam’s book will make a great Christmas gift for today’s struggling grandchildren.
