Watch the future

Who doesn't like to hear about a young person with grown-up spirit and a winning way?

I mean, this guy Beau Shell from down in Athens, Georgia.  He started a mobile ice cream cart business when he was 8 years of age.  8!

Now he's 13, and he's done more in the entrepreneurial vein than many of us ever have, or will. His parents started him off with a little cart on bicycle wheels, and now he's got it going to where he has been booked for hundreds of events - parties, festivals, weddings, and the like.

He's even hired other people to work for him to cover all these bookings for ice cream service. And remember, he's 13.

And remember this as well - he has given more than $15,000 of his proceeds to charitable community organizations.  Sure, he gets himself video games and other cool stuff that 13-year-olds like, but he has another mission beyond bringing ice cream to Athens.

He wants to encourage girls to get into STEM (Science, technology, engineering and math) courses, because that's going to be good for girls and good for the world at large. Unlike most people his age, he is looking to a better future, and he knows that it will be one of today's young people who cures cancer, creates a new cell phone, builds better buildings, makes a better world.

So along comes this new movie “A Wrinkle In Time,” with Oprah Winfrey.  It's a science fiction tale from Disney, about a young girl named Meg and her little brother.They travel through space looking for their long-lost daddy.

I did say it was science fiction, right?

Beau Shell

Beau wants to encourage girls getting into STEM, so he found a way to raise $5,000 to take 100 local girls, who were picked by their teachers, to see the picture and go to reception afterwards with dinner and a goody bag.

“I hope they feel inspired just by seeing the movie,” Shell told local television station CBS46. “And seeing Meg because she’s a strong, smart, powerful, brave character and I hope that they can relate and get a positive vibe.”

I've been saying this incessantly since the day after Valentine's Day. I feel more hopeful about the future than I ever have, because young men and women are taking charge of making it a better world.