Last year, as we prepared to make the transition from Boys Hope Girls Hope to Hope Ignites, our team spent a lot of time brainstorming how we could bring the energy behind the new name to life.
So the brainstorming continued. Meanwhile, a beloved member of our community was nearing the end of his journey.
John Vatterott, a dear friend and one of the legends of our organization, was in the final stages of his life after a long battle with cancer. John was an extraordinary man—brilliant, grounded, and generous with his wisdom. He had a way of offering one- or two-line insights that would change the course of our organization.
Screenshot from Hope Ignites St. Louis: Spark the Journey
THE POWER OF SUPPORT
In these conversations, John said something more than once: “You’ve really got to meet my son, Timmy. He’s an amazing documentary filmmaker in LA. I’m so sorry you two haven’t met.” Over the years, I’d met most of John and Joan’s children—but not Timmy.
That changed in August 2023 when John and Joan introduced us. Timmy and I had a long video call where we laughed and cried talking about John, who we both admired so deeply. I met Timmy in person that November at John’s memorial service. Listening to Timmy’s eulogy made me appreciate even more deeply what a thoughtful storyteller he was. He moved everyone to laughter, tears, and a great sense of connection in bringing his father into our hearts that day.
Later that year, as we were trying to figure out how to bring the torch idea to life, I woke up one night with a flash of an idea.
We don’t need to run a literal torch through three countries…
We can pass the torch through video.
I called Timmy to share the idea. I imagined we could ask filmmakers—or even film students—in each city to create a short video capturing the essence of their affiliate community, with a symbolic torch pass connecting them all.
Timmy was quiet at first. Then he said he’d think about it. A few days later, he called me back and said: “I want to do this project. But I want to film it myself.”
I told him: “There’s no way you can travel to 14 cities starting in February and have 14 edited videos ready by May 1st. And… we can’t afford it.” But Timmy stayed with the vision and continued to tell me, “I will make this happen. My wife and kids are on board. Let’s do this!”
MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
Timmy hit the road on February 17—and what came from it was extraordinary.
The Spark the Journey video series now includes 14 beautiful portraits—each telling the story of a unique Hope Ignites affiliate community, and together showing the tapestry of our Network: young people, mentors, families, and teams all igniting hope in each other and their cities every single day.
You can watch the series here: www.hopeignites.org/videos.
Let’s keep lighting the way for one another, as our founders have lighted the way for us —and for those counting on us to believe in their spark.
AUTHOR
