Today, Marty McEachean is a successful entrepreneur. His business, McEachean Enterprises, is active in diverse areas: nutrition, online gaming, conducting events and boat rentals. But the man behind it all might never have found his place in the world had it not been for someone who reached him as a teen.
And now, McEachean wants to do the same for kids of St. Johns County who are facing challenges of their own.
McEachean grew up in the housing projects of High Point, North Carolina, the “Furniture Capital of the World.” Success in the community was defined as learning a skill and working for one of the furniture factories.
Fortunately, a representative of the local Boys and Girls Club came by each summer day with a big bus and shuttled the kids to the club across town. When McEachean was 13 he got to be a junior counselor and was eligible for a trip to the club’s national convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
“The highlight of the trip for me was we got to stay in a hotel,” McEachean recalled. “We got to have food in the hotel, and there was a swimming pool.”
The convention itself didn’t hold much interest for him. The mayor was going to address the group, but the High Point teen didn’t know who that was. Sitting in the audience as the mayor was being introduced, he could only think: Yeah, great, can we get back to the fun — the hotel and the food?
“But when Andrew Young, the Black mayor of Atlanta, walked across that stage, my life changed,” he said. Here was a successful man the African-American teen could identify with. “I get chills just telling that story.”
Afterward, he asked the Boys and Girls Club driver how he, too, could one day become a mayor. The man described a pathway to success: take certain classes in school, stay out of trouble, go to college.
So McEachean played football, got a scholarship and broke out of the world of High Point.
“Education is the only way out,” he said.
McEachean, himself a go-getter, is an inspiration to young people he meets. Serving eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he graduated number one from Parris Island Boot Camp ahead of 2,500 future Marines.
Having found success for himself, he has launched a nonprofit to help today’s youth. That nonprofit, St. Johns County 904, is looking to partner with other organizations to accomplish its mission. Whatever is holding kids back — whether it be poverty, drugs, health issues or something else — McEachean hopes to use fun activities to get them the education they need to overcome their challenges.
The nonprofit would work closely with McEachean’s for-profit ventures.
“McEachean Enterprises understands and recognizes we have a social responsibility to our community at this difficult time, and we are acting on it,” said McEachean.
As a partner in Jax Boat Rentals, he hopes to offer boat outings that would include an expert to talk about waterways and environmental science. And sports being one avenue to gain a college education, St. Johns County 904 is planning flag football tournaments, which can help both boys and girls get recruited. The tournaments can also be paired with campus visits to introduce the players to the value of a higher education.
“The return on the investment is to get these kids to college,” McEachean said.
Next up, McEachean is looking to start a “Young Lives Matter” movement, which he said will focus of giving youths hope and direction by listening to them and establishing positive adult and peer-to-peer mentoring to help them through issues they face.
“We want to make sure our young folks know and understand if we want to make real change – besides improving policy – real change starts with them, our future,” he said.
McEachean can be reached at martymceachean@yahoo.com.
