ENSPIRE Magazine FW Issue 20 | Page 65

TeeJ Mercer lives a life of purpose , compassion , and selflessness , with God at the forefront . Born and raised as a Preacher ’ s kid , TeeJ grew up in Jackson , Tennessee . She has spent her time in Los Angeles , as a highly renowned editor and author . She was featured on ABC , NBC , and MTV to name a few . In March of 2020 , TeeJ moved to Atlanta , due to an overwhelming feeling that God wanted her in Georgia . As soon as COVID-19 hit , TeeJ continued to stay steady in her faith and listened to what she believed God was calling her to do . From this , arose TeeJ reading to kids virtually and creating the hit of HBCU Bingo . HBCU Bingo has since awarded $ 1 million in career professional prizes to college graduates in the Class of 2020 , who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic .
How are you using your platform during this time of quarantine COVID racial and justice to talk and educate individuals on the difficult subjects of today ?
After living 25 years in working and living in Hollywood . So , the COVID hit . I knew I ain ’ t that smart and I ain ’ t got no cure for COVID . I knew that I ’ m not skilled in digging us out of the financial hole that the economy is in . I ’ m not skilled in helping people navigate depression . I ’ m not skilled in logistics . Telling frontline workers what needs to happen . The one thing I ’ m skilled in is drawing people to me and loving them as God ’ s kids . So , I went into COVID knowing that I would just ask God to show me what my role is in this season . So one of the first things he gave me is as a storyteller , because , you know , I spent 25 years working on some of the biggest shows on TV . My prayer became Lord , “ How do I help them in this transition , you know they ’ re thrown into this situation ,” and he quite simply told me , “ I need you to read to kids .”
I was in Target and I was ready to check out and they had a whole play on a Dr . Seuss book . So , I bought like five Dr . Seuss books . I came home and I told my right-hand and I said , “ Hey , I think God is telling me I ’ m supposed to do storytime for kids .” The next
thing I know , she has created a graphic and called it a “ Storytime with Auntie TeeJ .”
So , the key here is , how I rock with God is I always just do what He tells me to do without knowing the whole plan . I am very honest when I start something that I tell people , “ I don ’ t know the whole plan and he ’ s ain ’ t giving it to me , I just know I ’ m supposed to do that . So , I started reading to kids .”
One of the things that I asked God that I was worried about , “ Well , how long do you want me to do this because I don ’ t really have children ’ s books and you want me to keep just buying children ’ s books ?” [ God ] was like , “ You ’ re gonna have authors send in their books .” So about three days in , one of my clients who lives in Atlanta sent me a message and said , “ Listen , I ’ ve got a box full of children ’ s books over here . Give me your address , I ’ m gonna bring them and drop them off on your , your porch on your doorstep .”
Then I just started putting it out there and then I started having people literally asked me , “ Hey , I have a children ’ s book , would you be willing to read it and can I send it to you ? So , it happened just like God said ,
then maybe about three weeks into doing that I started getting really lonely because I ’ m an extrovert , well , I ’ m an extrovert with severe introvert tendencies . I was losing my mind because God had moved me to this new city , and I don ’ t really know anybody like that . So , I was really happy when one of my cousins coordinated a bingo game for my family . And so , maybe two games , and I was like , I ’ m gonna do this for my people because I know I ’ m not the only one that ’ s lonely and missed their people . So I sent a text to my right-hander . I had built this whole system . So like , you know , you have to register , and I was googling anybody who already had a virtual bingo system and I found a company that did . I was up all night to , like , 5 a . m ., building the system . I woke up at like 10 p . m . the next day , I think I had like 100 and something people registered . By the time we played on our first day , we were at 91 people and I had accumulated like $ 2,000 worth of stuff .
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Six weeks later we ’ re giving away almost $ 10,000 in cash prizes . So , maybe three or four weeks into that , because I ’ m a Howard alum . It bothered me that COVID had cheated the grads out of their graduation . I asked [ God ], “ What can I do , is there anything in my hand that I don ’ t even know what I ’ m asking about , I don ’ t know what I ’ m , you know , looking to do but is there anything that I can do to help the grads .” [ God ] basically said , “ It ’ s always been the plan for you to do this .” Because I moved to Atlanta to produce a TV show for and about HBCUs in the first place .
When I realized that he helped me gain $ 10,000 for the regular bingo , in cash and prizes . I was going to be bold enough to ask him for $ 100,000 for HBCU Bingo . Well , I hit $ 100,000 in like the first week in cash and prizes . So in less than four weeks , we raised well over a million in cash and prizes . The grads ended up getting $ 1,200 in cash and prizes just for registering , they didn ’ t even have to play a game .
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ENSPIRE MAGAZINE WS20