This story was written by a high school student participating at NEPM's Media Lab Summer '23 cohort, in partnership with MassLive.
Mike Pabón is a 29-year-old real estate attorney who knows the struggle of growing up without financial help from others. He grew up in a single-parent household in Springfield and Southwick. He started his own non-profit organization in his second year of law school. The GiveBack Group Inc. now raises more than $10,000 each event.
Pabón uses his passion for golf as an outlet to raise money for local schools. Before the pandemic, he did not play golf. When things closed down, he found a new passion in golf and incorporated a Golf Tournament as a fundraiser for his organization to help kids who are growing up with struggles like he did. Raising these funds is important because it allows the kids to focus on their education instead of the financial struggles. Using the golf tournaments, he is able to give back to his community.
“I didn’t have much money or help from family really to get into law school, and that was a big stresser in my life, so I take any attempt at helping other kids focus on education rather than stresses outside of school,” Pabón said.
He holds these golf tournaments once or twice a year and is able to raise about $10,000 each time. The money goes back to the schools through uniform drives and turkey drives during Thanksgiving. Using the money they get through the tournament and sponsors, he is giving back to Gerena Community School. The message he is trying to get across is to do what you want to do and use school to your advantage.
“Don’t ever feel like you don’t know what you want to do, so you feel stagnant. Keep moving and always make sure you are at least progressing in some way,” Pabón said.
Mike Pabón is an inspiration and very helpful to the youth community. He works hard and is dedicated to helping kids who are growing up with struggles at home. He is able to help out many kids because of the golf tournament. To participate in the tournament it costs $100 and this upcoming event has 100 people playing. The next tournament is Aug. 12 where he has local banks and realtors sponsoring the event.
Learn more about our partnership with MassLive.