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| Oct. 30 - Nov. 5, 2019
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Ribbon Cutting ceremony at Blessed Beginnings Learning Center including owner LaShawn Bridges, Mayor Mike Duggan, and City Councilman Scott Benson PHOTO Branden Hunter.
Blessed Beginnings Learning Center Opens on East 8 Mile
By Branden Hunter It was not too long ago that the building at 14050 East 8 Mile on Detroit’s east side was an illegal marijuana shop that the city shut down. Last Friday, the renovated location was reopened as Blessed Beginnings Learning Center. Owned by Detroiter LaShawn Bridges who received a $75,000 cash grant from the Motor City Match program, she opened a second location of her business in a neighborhood that was in desperate need of daycare educational centers. Bridges cut the ribbon to her new facility alongside Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit Council Member Scott Benson (D-3), other dignitaries, and a host of family and friends. “It takes a village to raise a child and Blessed Beginnings is the village,” said Bridges, who is a graduate of Detroit’s Martin Luther King High School and has a master’s degree from Oakland University. “In this neighborhood, you see plenty of liquor stores, gentlemen’s clubs, and all the places that are not helping families better themselves. When parents bring their children here, they are going to be blessed.” Bridges started her daycare business out of her mother’s basement in 1999, on Somerset Avenue on the city’s east side. When she married, she moved the business to its current location at her home on Eastburn. She began with two children, grew to 12 now at the Eastburn location, and will accommodate 60 children at the new center,
Owner LaShawn Bridges and Mayor Mike Duggan. complete with a long waiting list. “It was very necessary that I find a new facility that will help other families as well,” she said. Blessed Beginnings will offer Early Head Start, STEAM curriculum, free field trips, and regular vision and dental screenings to families. Each of the four classrooms are fur-
nished with developmentally appropriate furniture, materials, and equipment and a playground. Bridges said she serves children aged six months to five years old. Motor City Match connects new and expanding businesses with Detroit’s quality real estate opportunities, providing them with funding and tools to fuel the city’s entrepreneurial
revolution. The program has successfully aided more than 1,300 entrepreneurs through 15 rounds, awarding $7.5M in cash grants to 170 entrepreneurs on their journey from “idea to open.” Seventy percent are women-owned businesses, with Bridges’ daycare being the latest one. “When we started Motor City Match, Detroiters like
LaShawn Bridges is who we had in mind,” said Mayor Duggan. “She is somebody who runs her own business out of her home, has a wonderful reputation, and found a space in her own neighborhood and made her dream come true of having her business on a main road in Detroit. Now, families that have to catch the bus to daycare don’t have to
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SEEL Wins Supplier of the Year at the 2019 NMSDC Awards SEEL (Solutions for Energy Efficient Logistics) has been named Supplier of the Year, Class III, at the 2019 National Minority Supplier Development Council’s (NMSDC) annual gala held during its Conference and Business Opportunity Exchange in Atlanta Georgia on October 14, 2019. The Class III award honors the outstanding business achievements of certified minority business enterprises with annual revenue of $10 to $50 million dollars. SEEL Chief Administrative Officer, E’Lois Thomas, Ph.D. accepted the award on behalf of the organization and its President and CEO, Louis E. James. “It is such a great honor to be recognized by the national council,” said Louis E. James. “Even more rewarding is to have been nominated by my customer, DTE. I am proud of the SEEL team and its leadership. Every day, our teams across the country work hard to educate and serve communities through energy efficiency programs and services. We look forward to continuing this good work. Operating in eight offices in five states and headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, SEEL is one of the largest minority-owned, service disabled veteran owned, energy efficiency program implementation companies in the nation.
SEEL’s Chief Administrative Officer E’Lois Thomas accepts 2019 NMSDC Supplier of the Year Award on behalf of the organization and CEO Louis E. James.
Offering a full suite of energy services, to date, SEEL has managed and implemented more than 17 energy efficiency programs across the states. These programs have generated energy savings for and engaged with more than a half million util-
ity customers. SEEL’s strength in the industry is rooted in a distinct ability to reach and connect with diverse communities and traditionally hard to reach populations. This year, SEEL celebrates its 10th anniversary working in the energy efficiency industry. SEEL’s services include providing single-family homes, multi-family buildings and small businesses with energy audits and direct installation of energy saving measures. SEEL also brings more than nine years of incentive rebate check processing experience on various energy efficiency programs and managing contractor networks to promote and install deeper energy measures. Businesses honored by NMSDC are recognized for having excelled in growing their companies, enhanced their operations and actively participated in MBE-to-MBE purchasing. The NMSDC Conference and Business Opportunity Exchange is the nation’s premier forum on minority supplier development. For four days, more than 6,000 corporate CEOs, procurement executives, and supplier diversity professionals from the top multinational companies, as well as leading Asian, Black, Hispanic, and Native American business owners and international organizations convene to re-energize their collective efforts to certify, develop, connect, and advocate for minority owned firms in the global corporate supply chain. For more information about SEEL, LLC, visit www.seelllc.com.