A-NOD ADVOCATES
This is our A-NOD Advocate Page, dedicated to the advocates and mentors who have gone before us. Their enlightened walk within their communities inspired the formative years, family life, and fieldwork that led to the formation of A-NOD, for which I am deeply grateful to God. May they rest in peace, and may His Perpetual Light shine upon them.
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Evelyn K. Davis-Inspirational Light of Love
In 1971, my mother, Marcella Schneberger, enrolled my younger brother Mark and me in The Tiny Tots Day Care Center in Des Moines, Iowa, where Ms. Evelyn K. Davis was our caretaker. Where, Ms. Davis recognized the gaps in childcare services and created a safe, nurturing environment for those she served, which, for my family, according to my mother, "was a significant improvement over our previous placement and one that allowed my mother to focus on her job, knowing we were well cared for.
This said, I fondly remember playing with cardboard bricks, climbing on the loft, playing with friends, and napping on mats after lunch, lasting memories. Memories of her, and a social worker advocate spirit that I carried into the lives of my family of four sons, three of whom dealt with situational anxieties, invisible disabilities, and sensory health concerns, and particularly because of a 2015 family incident that involved my older son, then ten, who yelled at an Officer to "take him to jail right now" after we were rear ended, an impact that influenced the creation of my For-Profit A-NOD For Situational Awareness LLC in October of 2020, and A-NOD INC of 2024, at the Evelyn K. Davis Community Center under the guidance of my mentor Curtis Baugh.
As such, today I continue to meet at the Evelyn Davis Community Center, her legacy, with my Business Mentor and my Financial Mentor Kent Johson, so that A-NOD, now Word Marked, can continue to bring light to gaps and continues to build safe sensory friendly spaces, like Ms. Davis where everyone feels heard seen and valued, similar as Ms. Davis did for a Tiny Tot such as me, and my family within her daycare- a nod that speaks to the person first, condition next so that all involved can be safe and supported.
Thank you, Ms. Davis. Thank you, Evelyn Davis K. Davis, for all you do! We Love You!
In 1979, Mrs. Betty Tripplet was the best teacher I had at Moultan Elementary School. As a fourth grader, she was strict, yet she was the first teacher who spoke to a child's heart about the need to "look beyond one's color and to have a dream that lay beyond what seemed to be one's lot in life". As an eleven-year-old, this was important because I had lost my father at age six, in February of 1975, being bullied in school, and I was having to move from my best friend, Tracy Herndon, because my mom was "tired of living scared in her neighborhood. As such, Ms. Tripplet played for us a black record with a red center on a square phonograph one day in her February class, called the I Dream Speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, dated August 28th, 1963. Five years before I was born, on April 2nd, 1968, and then two days afterwards, he was murdered. I recall watching that record spin, his needled voice resonating within me, not knowing how much, especially felt when I stepped on the Lincoln Memorial Steps in New York, overlooking the Reflection Pool of the Jefferson Memorial, in 2019, with my middle son, Michael. I swear I levitated. With A-NOD, we have a dream to lead and be a resource as a Servant Leader. To be a presence similar to Dr. Martin King Jr and Mrs. Tripplett was to me, all because of spin-A dream.
Vision
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