History and Overview.  

 

The High Five Foundation evolved in Tuttle, Oklahoma from a dream originally given to the founder, Dan Beard, in the year 2000. In this dream he saw young people being positively influenced through interactions with famous athletes and mentors, and he awoke with a plan to bring this about. The dream lay dormant due to a lack of clear direction until he lost a counseling job he had held for ten years due to budget cuts in Oklahoma's Mental Health System. This occurred on August 1, 2003, and he then began to seek further direction. On August 27, 2003, while praying to know God's purpose for his life, he immediately remembered the dream, and had a notion that a set of core principles were needed to guide the young people. While he lay in bed, the "High Five" principles were unfolded in his mind, along with a plan to disseminate them to potentially millions of people. At approximately 3:00 a.m., he called Linda Flanagan, who he was dating at the time, and shared the idea with her as they viewed from their separate homes the nearby passing of Mars together. Her response was: "Dan, this is you", and she gave him the encouragement needed to move forward.

The next day, Dan shareing the Bible, and trying to reach out to his friends, but the disease was still present. The next seven years, Dan finished high school and attended three colleges, earning a bachelor's degree in Missions and a master's in Religion. While in school, he worked at a variety of jobs, mostly in the area of construction, and he married Darleen Bailey Beard (now a well-known children's author) in 1983. Strangely, the misfortune was still often present as several companies he worked for collapsed or took wage cuts, he began to experience depression and back pain, and investments he tried lost money. Ministry opportunities were very few, and eventually he lost his ordination due to a difference in his beliefs, but knowing he had a purpose, Dan cried to God and asked for more guidance.

Shortly afterward, his closest friend at the time, Steve Robinson came by and asked, "are you going to keep driving nails the rest of your life" and invited him to come with him to speak to a career counselor at the University of Central Oklahoma. Having always been interested in Psychology, and having no clear direction from God, Dan decided to keep learning, and earned a second master's degree in Community Counseling.