By Natasha Carter

Staff writer

SEBASTIAN - You can be anything you want to be are words you always hear at the Dasie Bridgewater Hope Center in Wabasso, but last week it meant so much more the center's youth.

Retired Major General Eugene Cromartie, a Wabasso native spoke to the youth with an awe-inspiring message.

The message he conveyed to the youth of Wabasso is the importance of recognizing your dreams.

"Its important to know what you want to be and how to get there," Mr. Cromartie said.

Mr. Cromartie's defining moment came as a young man when he realized he and his father received the same wage for the same work.

"We both were being paid $6 a day for working in the citrus groves. I said there is something wrong with this," he said.

Mr. Cromartie decided he had to get an education.

"I realized there was something bigger and better out there and I wanted to be apart of it," he said.

He attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, on one of two scholarships offered in Indian River County for a student at Vero Beach High School and Gifford High School.

After graduation, he was an officer in the army for 33 years, and since then has traveled the world.

"This is home. I never forget my roots. I was blessed to have good things happen to me, not because of me, but other people from Wabasso neutering me," Mr. Cromartie said.

One of the people he refers to is Lydia Broxton, a close family friend he calls his second mom.

"He makes me very proud," Mrs. Broxton said.

"It helps when you have a support system beyond your family," Mr. Cromartie said.

The staff at Dasie Hope Center is the children's support system often drilling the same important message and bringing in people like Mr. Cromartie to reinforce it.

"Youth always need a visual model. You can tell them constantly, but they need to see someone who can relate," said Barry Broxton, chairman of Board of Trustees for Dasie Bridgewater Hope Center.

The message did touch the youth.

"I got a lot of motivation because even being from here he still succeeded in life," said Briyunna Chambliss, an aspiring pediatrician and 16-year-old student at Sebastian River High School.

"I learned that I have to get an education. Your diploma and degree are important things," said Alejandro Cruz, an aspiring baseball player and 12-year-old student at Sebastian River Middle School.

Dasie Hope's staff continue to help people like Mr. Cromartie focus on making the area's youth the best people they can be.

"It was refreshing to see and hear him speak about goals and opportunities available to them. The speech was appropriate because now they know there is a wide world beyond Wabasso," said Janice Miller, a staff member at Dasie Hope Center.