At 18, Eric Oba Totton learned a lesson that still guides his nonprofit work three decades later.
To complete volunteer hours while pledging a fraternity at Langston University, a historically Black college in Oklahoma, Totton spent time at the Salvation Army teaching children how to juggle.
After his first visit, he told the kids he would be back in a week, but he didn’t make it back for nearly a month.
When he finally showed up, a Salvation Army staffer said one of the boys had come every other day for the past two weeks hoping to see him and finish their juggling lesson.
“I spent the next two weeks looking for him. Never found him. I’ve never seen him again in my life,” Totton said. “I told myself, ‘Hey man, you can never do that again. You can’t let somebody down like that again.’”
That spirit imbues Totton’s work at Dreamz Into Goals, the nonprofit he now runs with the goal of helping Long Beach youth find success.
Totton, now 49, founded Dreamz Into Goals in 2021 with the original goal of closing the digital divide — the gap between those who have access to technology and those who do not.
He said he remembered the feeling of going to college and seeing everyone with laptops while he had to go to the library to do his homework.
“I made a promise to myself then,” Totton said. “When I got older and had enough that I would make sure to supply kids with laptops.”
Originally, Dreamz Into Goals consisted of a monthly laptop giveaway. Three years later, it has expanded to tutoring, mentorships, scholarships and other giveaway events.
In 2022, the nonprofit donated over a dozen laptops to students, including six to students outside California.
The events have grown beyond just technology too. In August, Dreamz Into Goals hosts a bike and backpack giveaway for students. In October, the nonprofit gives away skateboards and shoes, with hundreds of students and families showing up to the latest event in Lincoln Park.
Totton also offers free homework help over Zoom. In 2021, 160 students used the program.
Totton didn’t originally aspire to start a charity. He studied broadcast journalism in college after suffering a severe knee injury his sophomore year while playing football. As a cornerback, he used to guard Chad OchoCinco Johnson during practice when the famed wide receiver made a brief stop in Langston before going on to his NFL career.
Totton’s introduction to the nonprofit world came through Ken Sagoes, an actor known for his role as Kincaid in the third and fourth “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies in the late ’80s.
Sagoes founded the Giving Back Corporation in 1997 and put Totton on the junior board of the nonprofit. He also gave Totton lessons on writing screenplays, the original reason Totton moved out to California from his home state of Oklahoma.
He eventually made it to Long Beach about 12 years ago.
“What made me stay [in Long Beach] is the people,” Totton said.
Although Totton’s aspirations as a screenplay writer didn’t pan out, he found success on the stock market and cryptocurrency market.
He said day trading has been his main source of income since 2008.
Through a mentorship program, Totton also teaches children and parents about investing in the stock market.
And each year, Dreamz Into Goals awards $600 to six graduating seniors heading to college and to six graduating seniors planning to attend trade school. The program, known as The Bigg 6 Scholarship, was named after Totton’s younger cousin whom he used to drop off at barber school while heading to his college classes, and then pick him up on his way back from class.
Totton said he hasn’t done all this on his own.
Local companies like Alley Cat Deliveries and Pedal Movement, the Downtown Long Beach Alliance and Councilmember Mary Zendejas have provided crucial support since the start, he said. And last year, Long Beach nonprofit Our Generation Cares invited Totton and his staff of four to work out of a coworking space in Downtown Long Beach.
Next, Totton said he’s in the process of building a podcast studio for students interested in expanding their multimedia skills.
Eventually, he wants to teach children how they can affect local politics and governmental policies as a way to “further expand our footprint in the community,” he said.