From city to country: Former PR exec devotes his life to kids
Thursday October 17,1996
RIGHT AT HOME — John St. Augustine left the big city lights for the quiet serenity of Rapid River. The 37-year-old Chicago native is working to develop a Delta County-based multi-cultural camp. (Photo by Christine Pepin)

By CHRISTINE PEPIN
For The Daily Press

RAPID RIVER — John St. Augustine cares about kids.
That caring and commitment prompted him to leave the city and bring wife, Jackie, his daughter, Amanda, 8, and son Andrew, 5, to the Upper Peninsula
Through a new Inward Bound program called LifeWorks, St. Augustine and volunteers from across three states hope to offer youth four cornerstones for life: self-reverence, self-control, self-improvement and self-knowledge through a live-in, learning experience for both rural and urban youth.

St. Augustine said the natural setting of the U.P. is the best place to achieve his goal.
 "After doing so much work with corporations... my choice was to take that same experience I got there and take it to younger people in Inward Bound," he said.
"The only way I can do that is here."
To raise money for that project, St. Augustine along with Duane Kiunnart, Gladstone, and Joe Johnson, Mount Pleasant, plan to walk to Chicago. Their "Walk for Change" has a goal of $1 million and already has some corporate sponsors.
St. Augustine, a Chicago-native, was commencement speaker at Rapid River High School last year. He was so impressed by the people and natural beauty of the U.P. that he left the corporate life for a simpler one here.
"I was so taken with the people and the sense of community," said St. Augustine. "I thought it was a great place to raise a family."
St. Augustine is a nationally-known speaker and author of the soon to be released book "All Are Chosen" Born and raised in Chicago, he received offers of football scholarships from schools ranging from Dartmouth to the Naval Academy.
In 1978, after selecting North­eastern Illinois University he began to pursue a bachelor's degree in communications. He attended only two years before a severe electrical injury left him unable to write for a year. Leaving school, he began to study on his own.
In 1980, St. Augustine joined the Coast Guard and became a helicopter air crewman and survival specialist.

He spent four years performing numerous search and rescue missions and received medals for outstanding performance, life saving rescues and the Coast Guard's highest honor, Coast Guardsman for 1982.
He returned to college to earn his communications degree and turned to the public sector in 1986 as a motivational speaker and public relations.
Working with a wide range of clients including the Chicago Bulls, McDonald's, professional athletes like Walter Payton, and entertainers such as Peter Kater and John Denver, St. Augustine became a recognized force for positive personal change.
His presentations caught the eye of Les Brown, Toastmaster's Speaker of the Year and author of "Live Your Dreams." Through Brown's guidance, St. Augustine brought his speaking to a new level. Joining with his friends, former NFL great and entertainer Tony Galbreath and his partner Winford Brown of 2FRIENDS," they created a "motivational musical event" called "Songs in the Key of Life."
St. Augustine hopes to bring all his experience to a program being established here in the U.P. Inward Bound is a multi-cultural effort to offer youth positive life skills.
From the big city to the rural setting, St. Augustine said today's youth face many of the same chal­lenges.
"They have the same wants, needs," he said. "Kids in the Rapid River area have the same problems as kids in Chicago. There is a commonality kids have and things they need. Age 16 here is the same as 16 there," he added.