The start you get in life does not determine the person you will become. That’s what John Surmont believes.
Now the CEO of high-tech company Sofcoast Inc., Surmont spent the first five years of his life on the streets with his homeless mother.
“I can remember stealing food for my mother and I to survive,” Surmont told The Times-Tribune in Corbin, Kentucky, where he is locating a new branch of his San Diego-based company. “I can remember hitchhiking across the desert. I can remember sleeping in cars for survival. I can remember eating food, like ground beef and tomato sauce, off of a hot plate skillet on the bathroom floor of a Greyhound bus stop. I can remember that the only clothes I wore were what the Salvation Army gave me. I can remember that the only Christmas presents I got were what the Salvation Army gave me.”
After his grandmother contacted authorities, Surmont stayed in 14 foster homes during the course of three years before he was adopted by the Surmont family and raised in Corbin. He credits them with nothing less than saving his life.
When he struggled academically at the University of Kentucky, his adoptive father convinced Surmont to join the military. That’s where he spent a decade as a Navy SEAL acquiring the skills that led him to found Sofcoast, which is creating new devices that will help law enforcement agencies at crime scenes.
Surmont wants to give back to his hometown. “My fundamental goal here is to provide opportunities to our children to stay if they want, or to come home if they desire,” Surmont told the newspaper. “If I can possibly help this area, I will.”
The ministries of Sunrise Children’s Services have changed the lives of countless children who grew up to give back to their communities. Foster and adoptive parents can never estimate where their impact ends. Will you intervene for the kids in Kentucky who desperately need a new start in life? Get more information at http://www.sunrise.org/foster_care.php.
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