Raise The Barr
September 25, 2024 | Football, Joel Coleman
Bulldog punter Nick Barr-Mira’s family is committed to changing lives for single parents and their children.
STARKVILLE – Lori Barr was just 19 years old when she found herself feeling alone and isolated.
Several years before Barr gave birth to Mississippi State punter Nick Barr-Mira, Lori was pregnant with Nick's older brother Anthony, and she wasn't sure where to turn.
Lori was an unmarried teenager just about to begin her junior year at St. Mary's College. With a little one on the way and an education still left to complete, her head was spinning.
"I was quickly trying to figure out how to raise a baby while still trying to figure out how to raise myself," Lori said.
But figure it out, Lori ultimately did. She moved home to Los Angeles and went on to earn not only a bachelor's degree at Loyola Marymount University, but also a master's degree in counseling from LMU's graduate school. Meanwhile, as Lori balanced two part-time jobs and stayed up late studying for her college courses, little Anthony was surrounded by loving family and friends as he grew and matured, ultimately developing a passion for football that led him all the way to the NFL.
It's an incredible success story and now, driven by their own personal journey, Lori and Anthony are committed to helping others in similar situations thrive, too, courtesy of Raise The Barr – a nonprofit dedicated to providing aid to single-parent students and their children in Minnesota (where Anthony spent eight years starring as a linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings) and in the Barrs' home area in southern California. The organization provides its participants, known as scholars, with programming that includes financial assistance, community building and professional and personal development with the goal set as well-being for the entire family.
"When you create a pathway for a single-parent student to attain a degree [and] secure a career with a family-sustaining wage, you're benefiting your local community and society as a whole," Lori said.
Personal stories on the Raise The Barr website at www.raisethebarr.org attest to the impact Lori, Anthony and their team are having.
"With help from Raise The Barr and receiving the scholarship, my last year of college, I didn't have to take out loans," one alumni scholar said.
Said another: "It's great to know they're not just there to give you the scholarship, but they're also there as a person. They're saying, 'Hey, we're real. I've been there, too. I get it. I've got your back."
As Raise The Barr transforms lives, one of its biggest supporters is in Starkville booming punts for the Bulldogs. Nick Barr-Mira is incredibly proud of the work of his mother and brother. Nick's football schedule down South doesn't always allow him the chance to be consistently involved, but that doesn't stop him from helping when possible and drawing inspiration from Lori and Anthony.
"It's something they're very passionate about and also I'm very passionate about," Nick said. "They inspire me every day with their desire to help and serve others. It spreads to me and [motivates] me to help with my community and it's something I'm proud to be a part of."
Nick pitches in as much as he can. This past spring, he interned with Raise The Barr and was part of an event planning committee.
"It was one small way I was able to support their organization and the work they do," Nick said.
Truth be told, there are no small contributions when it comes to the work of Raise The Barr. Everything has the chance to help improve lives.
"The whole goal is to create opportunities for others," Lori said. "The opportunities that [Anthony and I] had, we worked to achieve those, but we couldn't have done that alone. We did it with the support of family. So that's how we see ourselves is an extension of the family for our program participants."
Such support is perhaps more needed than most realize. Lori shares that recent studies have shown that single-parent students make up about 15 percent of any college's enrollment. Lori knows from her own past how hard of a life that can be, but for Raise The Barr scholars, they have help carrying the load.
"We can create generational change by creating more inclusive spaces where single parents who are students, who are parenting on their own doing the hard work, have the same opportunities to thrive as traditional students and their peers in the community," Lori said.
Raise The Barr's numbers show the program's success. For fiscal year 2022, Raise The Barr awarded $1.11 million in tuition, emergency grants and basic needs support. Ninety-five percent of scholarship recipients either remained in college or graduated, and 134 hours of one-on-one mentoring took place between Raise The Barr staff and scholars in just one semester. Also, 110 holiday gifts were distributed to scholars and their children.
The Barrs are truly working wonders in the states of California and Minnesota. As they do, Nick watches on in his Maroon and White, glad his family can be a vital piece to so many other families' puzzles.
"It's an incredible, incredible feeling whenever you're able to help someone," Nick said. "Especially [so many with a story that] hits home for us. My mom and brother, they see a lot of themselves in the parents and the children they serve. It's incredibly fulfilling, and we're so blessed to be able to help and bless other people the way that we do."
