Singer/songwriter Terisa Griffin often speaks of her love for “our babies” as the motivation behind her Better Love Yourself Foundation. The incoming college freshmen who will be gifted with a trunk full of college/dorm essentials next weekend were literal babies when the national recording artist first included St. Louis among the select cities that host its signature event.
Next Sunday (July 21), Better Love Yourself Foundation’s Trunk Event and Pep Rally for Education returns to The Missouri History Museum for year 17.
“I fell in love with St. Louis – the food and the people,” Griffin said. “They get my music and my Southern style. And St. Louis is one of the places where kids need a lot of assistance and don’t always get the assistance that they need.”
A total of 50 students from the St. Louis region will be the latest benefactors of the Better Love Yourself Foundation as they enter the next chapter in their educational journey. They join hundreds of past local recipients and thousands across the country whom Griffin has served through her foundation over the past two decades.
She remembered the feeling of love and support she felt when she was surprised with a trunk in her native Monroe, Louisiana. “When I left for college, I had no idea what to expect,” Griffin told The American in 2011. “But because of my trunk, I knew I was blessed and I wanted to give someone else that blessing.”
Griffin was blown away by the 13-inch black-and-white television that was given to her in the trunk just before she began her studies at Northeastern Louisiana University – where she received a scholarship to study music.
“My father was a minister, and the women in my church put together a trunk with all of these items that I wouldn’t have had sense enough to fill it with,” Griffin said. “It let me know that somebody loved me and reminded me to love myself. And I’m hoping that that’s what we are letting the kids know with these events.”
The events include workshops to equip, educate and inform students as they transition from home to campus life, as many of the students will be navigating the world on their own for the first time. Money management, physical and mental wellness, goal setting and sexual health are among the topics on the agenda for the programming.
Unlike most artists who wait until they achieve global fame, Griffin started the Better Love Yourself Foundation early in her career as a national recording artist – using her musical gifts as a catalyst to give back from the very beginning of her career.
She had an urban adult contemporary hit on her hands with her single “Wonderful” from her first full-length EP “My Naked Soul” when she brought her trunk event to St. Louis, but she was still emerging as an artist.
“Waiting to do something – until you go platinum, become a superstar… or whatever – to me is a waste of time,” Griffin said.
In the years that have followed, Griffin is still hard at work making a name for herself in the music industry.
Her fourth studio album “More Than a Woman” dropped in February – and featured a well-received cover of Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Distant Lover.”
Audiences can get a sample of Griffin’s talent at next Sunday’s event – which, just as it has done for the past 17 years, includes a performance as its culminating event.
“What if this is my blow up, and by waiting I passed up the opportunity to bless the next president of Sony Records,” Griffin said. “You never know when your last day on this earth is going to be – if I can do this, then my life and my career have not been in vain.”
The Better Love Yourself Trunk Event and Pep Rally for Education takes place at 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 21 at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell (at DeBaliviere). To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.betterloveyourself.com.