Engineering Student Spends Summer Creating Non-Profit Start-Up

By: Erin Rider

Brandon Cobb, a senior in the College of Engineering, spent his summer differently than most of his peers. This summer Cobb started a nonprofit organization. The organization, The Dove Project, strives to make a positive and lasting impact on the lives of others. “We don’t have a niche of people we support and we don’t have funding, but we do have heart,” the website explains. 

Cobb’s mother, who passed away this past winter, inspired him to start the organization.  Her work as an inner-city teacher reminded Cobb of the power of giving back to the community. Cobb named the organization, The Dove Project, because he believes a dove best symbolizes her peaceful character and, therefore, named the organization to honor her memory.

“It’s great to see Brandon putting his Madison Engineering training to practice,” said Kurt Paterson, Department Head. “He identified a community need, built a team and organization, designed solutions, and put them in action.”

Cobb immediately gained support, and student volunteers, for The Dove Project on Facebook in addition to recruiting students to be part of The Dove Project is based in Stafford, Virginia and has led eight community projects from May to August 2014.

The Dove Project began with two simple “pay-it-forward” projects. Without any funding assistance, Cobb decided to pay for people’s meals at a local Stafford McDonald’s drive-thru. Customers were surprised by this act of generosity and began to follow suit, by buying meals for the people in line behind them. During this project, Cobb paid for sixteen meals, only stopping because his credit card company thought his card had been stolen. Later that day, Cobb paid for five customers at a gas station and watched as they too, returned the act of generosity and “paid-it-forward.”  

The Dove Project has expanded its services through additional acts of community aid including leading a Toy Drive for the INOVA Children’s Hospital, building a shed for the Stafford SPCA, and providing food and necessities (including a resource sheet listing helpful information) to the homeless in Richmond, Virginia. In total, Cobb and his fellow volunteers have spent nearly $600 out of their own pockets.

The organization’s biggest project took place in August Volunteers raised $10,000 for the family of Marine Staff Sergeant, David Stewart.  Stewart was a Stafford local, whose life was taken in Afghanistan, in June 2014.

The organization felt compelled to help the family as Stewart graduated from the same high school as the volunteers. “Stewart has two little kids, 14 months and 2 years old, which was an important factor as well,” stated Cobb. “We wanted to make this process as easy on them as we possibly could. I wish we could have done more.”

To raise money for the family, sixty volunteers, in teams of five, rode for twenty-four hours on stationary bikes at the Sport & Health Gym in Stafford. Cobb chose the biking fundraiser because he wanted to do something challenging to commemorate Stewart’s sacrifice. The gym’s owner gifted Stewart’s wife and two children a lifetime membership to Sport & Health.

With fundraiser proceeds, The Dove Project volunteers renovated the family’s backyard. Their main goal was to fulfill a promise Stewart made to his children—to build them a play set. 

Looking back, Cobb did not expect the Dove Project to grow as much as it did in three months’ time. He attributes the rapid growth and success of this organization in part, to people’s desire to help others in need.

"Helping others is something that people are inherently wired to do,” shared Cobb. “I think that if you have the power to help others, you have the obligation and this is why we received such a powerful response". Paterson adds, “His successes underscore why we aim to create the engaged engineer at JMU. One thoughtful engineer can create solutions that do great good for many people.”

Cobb has big plans for the future of The Dove Project including plans to work on a documentary video about the success of his non-profit organization, including film excerpts from each of the projects. Additionally, he plans to launch a kick-starter campaign over Christmas, to further promote The Dove Project. He hopes the campaign will get the organization more volunteers and more funding. Further, he hopes it will help to develop another project where he identifies that help is needed. Cobb looks forward to one day building a headquarters for The Dove Project, and when he graduates in May 2015, he hopes to turn the organization into his future career.