Good morning, Miss Darnell.

Good morning.

Can you please share your name and a little bit about yourself?

Okay. My name is Darnell Bowles. I'm a resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1953. I've been here all my life. Graduated from Rufus King. I now live in the Rufus King area. Went to Uwm Oshkosh, joined the military, did about 14 years total in the military, about 13 active duty in the United States army and a year in reserves. Worked for Social Security.

A member of Canaan Baptist Church for 30 plus years. Currently serving on the community engagement community there. And that's how I kind of got involved with a lot of community issues. The General Baptist State convention, which is our state convention, we have a health ministry called Hope Ministry that comes under the National Baptist Convention. And I'm one of their health ambassadors. So I've been a health ambassador ten plus years, and our duty is to bring health information to the religious based communities. We really pulled in during the COVID to encourage people to take the COVID vaccinations and just due diligence to be knowledgeable about what was happening during that time. We've done a number of things on high blood pressure, Alzheimer's, just, you know, diabetes, any health issues that the african american community.

Faith, faith, religion is faced with. We try to talk, tap into those topics and share information so they can be educated.

And do you think that, you know, the work that you've done as an ambassador has been relatively successful?

You know, it has been, because generally we get a good turnout, and we just did a living wellness facilitator group we just finished yesterday. We generally have about ten people in those groups. And, I mean, that group was dynamic. I mean, they asked questions, they shared their stories, they participated, and they even walked away feeling very positive about just gaining knowledge about what they could do about chronic health issues. So this last group has really inspired me to let me know that I'm on the right track. Good.

I want to take a step back and talk a little bit about your upbringing and kind of where you found your passion for health. So let's talk a little bit about kind of your growing up. I know you said you currently live in the Rufus King area. Is that where you grew up?

No, I grew up on Second and North Avenue, 2300 block. Lived in a household with my grandfather, my mother, and it was five of us, three boys and two girls. My mother worked at St. Anthony's Hospital. My grandfather worked for an organization. It was called the Laduca Brothers. They were a piano company. But my grandfather was a very compassionate man who cared about mankind.

And I just remember as a kid, someone was always coming to our house, and he helped them. You know, it was a long distance cousin, a lost cousin. He would feed anybody. He would clothe anybody. He would give anybody money. He did not like to see mankind hurt. A story that might have triggered where I am today. We were in the yard.