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 very
winter Mickey Fitzgerald gathers his corporate team and best
clients for their biggest project of the year: Christmas shopping for
the 28 abandoned children who live at the Calvary Children's Home in
Powder Springs
,
Ga.
Of course, business owners have always asked colleagues and customers to
contribute to their favorite charity.
But Fitzgerald, the founder and CEO of Dynamic
Orthotics & Prosthetics, has used the networking and
leadership skills he honed as a successful entrepreneur and pro football
player to create his own manner of giving: When he approaches hospital
administrators and doctors who use the medical equipment he distributes,
he doesn't simply request donations but hands them the children's
letters and Christmas lists and asks them to make those wishes come
true.
And
he isn't satisfied with merely delivering the gifts alone; he invites
his donors to visit
Calvary
and give their offerings to the children themselves. Every Christmas he
and his group arrive at the home for the annual party - he decked out as
Santa and pulling into the driveway on a fire truck, followed by a
parade of cars packed with thousands of dollars' worth of electronics,
clothing, toys, and gift certificates.
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In this way Fitzgerald has turned his
employees and clients into steady supporters of his cause. Each year
they treat the children to so many presents that all those festively
wrapped packages hardly fit under the tree.
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Fitzgerald's
story began more than 40 years ago, when his
mother dropped him and his two brothers off at a Catholic orphanage just
outside his hometown of
Lynchburg
,
Va.
Her lover had been shot. She had witnessed the whole scene and felt she
could no longer handle parenting.
At the orphanage Fitzgerald hid in the corner a lot. The nuns, he
recalls, had a penchant for smacking kids with a ruler. Luckily a priest
named Father Paul looked after the boys. "He took us to ball
games," Fitzgerald says. "He dedicated a lot of his time to
us."
About two years later, Fitzgerald's grandmother took them home.
Mickey started high school, where, it turns out, he played football well
enough to attract scholarship offers. He ended up playing fullback at
Virginia Tech and then in the NFL, first with the Atlanta Falcons and
later with the Philadelphia Eagles.
After five years, however, his
athletic career screeched to a halt. Multiple injuries and seven knee
surgeries left him with a bad limp. His run of good luck appeared to be
over.
But it wasn't. While wandering
about and talking to doctors during a hospital stay, he learned that
spinal surgeons couldn't tell how patients were faring until they woke
up. Appalled, he sought out a scientist who had developed a neural
monitoring device that tracks vital signs in the spine during surgery.
Fitzgerald brought it to market, launching a business that made
millions. His orphanage days seemed light-years away.
That changed in 1996. While
speaking at a local Rotary Club, Fitzgerald met Snyder Turner, the
administrator of Calvary
Children's Home, and saw in him a chance to pay back Father
Paul. By then Fitzgerald had already given tens of thousands of dollars
in scholarships and donations through an NFL alumni charity.
But after meeting Turner, he threw his efforts behind the home,
not only by providing Christmas presents but also by taking the kids on
outings to fairs, the zoo, and ball games, and sometimes asking his
employees and customers to come along.
"We always have more fun
with Mr. Mickey," said one young
Calvary
resident. And so do Fitzgerald's clients. "It's like taking a child
to a candy store," says Anisa Daftari, who, with her husband, Tapan
Daftari, started sponsoring an annual Thanksgiving dinner for the home
after meeting the children at Fitzgerald's Christmas party. "It
makes everyone so happy." q
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mother dropped him and his two brothers off at a Catholic orphanage just
outside his hometown of 
