Update: Our First Six Months (And Why This Isn’t Just a Dream Anymore)Milton Lumbergh Association: Building the Future With Flair
Milton Lumbergh Association: Building the Future With Flair
Six months ago, The Milton Lumbergh Association was just bylaws, ambition, and a very sincere $4.5 million dream campus plan that included scent-modulated rainwater showers and, somehow, chickens.
We thought we could 3D-print a building, install immersive domes, and build a geothermal lounge powered by hope and good intentions. We even budgeted for a smoothie bar with scene-aware flavor pairings. (No, we’re not sure what that meant either—but we meant it.)
Let’s just say: that budget did not survive first contact with Excel.
🚀 But Here's What Did Happen:
We built a model. A real one. A mentorship-based support line called FixLine, where people who’ve been told they "don’t belong in tech" learn how to answer calls with dignity, not scripts. No fake metrics. Just real empathy, clear minds, and patient voices.
We designed multilingual "mini helpdesks"—separate phone numbers where Spanish-, Nepali-, Lao-, and other language speakers get to hear their language answered first, not wait for “press 3.”
We restructured the budget. Not $4.5 million. But $1.3 million. Enough to:
Pay every leader $80,000 + premium insurance
Hire 15 part-time agents at $20/hour
Launch a 24/7 community FixLine built for Akron’s most overlooked residents
Translate trust into tech—and back again
🔮 What We Still Have
A mushroom chamber. We won’t elaborate.
A dream campus plan labeled “2030-ish, if the vibes align”
A hallway that’s “213% compliant with flair regulations”
A chicken coop no one remembers approving, but now feels... right
🙌 Why This Matters
Because tech support shouldn’t feel like punishment.
Because no one should have to “just Google it” in their second language.
Because empathy is a skill worth training.
And because the only thing more radical than dreaming big… is scaling back with soul and doing it anyway.
💸 How You Can Help
Our GoFundMe supports the real next steps:
Hiring bilingual mentors
Securing our training space
Launching the first FixLine cohort
Giving this model the legs (and flair) it deserves
Donate what you can. Share if you can’t. Come visit if you’re near Akron. And if you’re still wondering about those chickens? So are we. But we’re feeding them anyway.
