Watching Dante Cook from a distance, someone might want to slap a bumper sticker on his old, 2003 Honda Accord, “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Only they would see how trite it was if they actually lived for a few days on the Eastside with Cook, his wife, Breann, and four kids ranging from 7 weeks to 6 years in age, or drove around with him in the Accord with no radio and 300,000 miles and a leg brace in the back. Because Cook isn’t living a catchy slogan, he’s participating in life, and faith, and character, and hard work, and faithfulness, and big vision for seemingly small things.
He is truly global, born in Germany to parents in the U.S. armed forces, and currently works his way around the world from his home office, one moment in L.A., the next in London. Cook works for Swan, a financial services company, where he helps set up corporate treasuries and attract top talent globally.
But his heart is on the Eastside of Indy, where he and his family live.
“I’m in the same three or four square miles all the time,” he says, “but my geographical context changes constantly from home in the mornings and evenings with Breann and four kids, to engagement in our community, to my office computer which might take me anywhere in the world.”
COOK’S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT ME. Both his parents were risk-takers in their own families; hard workers who instilled in him that work is not all about self, but about making a better life for others.
GET COMFORTABLE ON THE HYPHEN. Cook calls it ‘living on the hyphen,’ and it is part of the way God uniquely wired him to build bridges between disparate people and groups and contexts. He is as comfortable with kids from the Eastside as he is adults in a gated community in Carmel, with people of differing ethnicities as with differing talents and educations. Building bridges in and around Indy helps make good things happen.
TRUST THAT WHAT’S IMPOSSIBLE WITH MAN IS POSSIBLE WITH GOD. Cook’s gifts opened doors to a football scholarship as a running back at the College of William & Mary, where – after a rough start that included almost dying of alcohol poisoning – he found his way back onto the team and into life through counseling, faith, the dean’s list, and an early mentor who suggested he complete his college years without taking a single elective. He listened, graduating with a B.S. in Process Management plus all the core requirements for marketing and finance majors too. Impossible. And that’s not all. He also played football his senior year with a torn ACL. Impossible. “God showed me I was going to play my senior year but nobody believed me,” he says. “I did what the trainers told me and the day before surgery, passed every drill they could throw at me. So they were stunned and I played ball.” Surgery waited until after the season, and he still carries his old leg brace in the car with him as a reminder of his big God. Possible.
GET INVOLVED AND STAY FAITHFUL. Committed to the flourishing of the Eastside, the Cook’s are active in schools, Soma Church (where he is an elder), small group, and building community. They are deeply engaged at Purdue Polytechnic High School on the Eastside, where Breann works a day a week, and he is on the board of directors and helped start a football team four years ago. His dreams of playing pro football were inspirational, but he has no regrets as he looks at the life he now has, married to the college athlete who inspired him to move to the Midwest, his early work for Dave Neff at Edge Mentoring, and mentors like Don Palmer, who keeps leading the way toward a long faithfulness in the same direction. “It may not seem impactful at the moment,” he says, “but just keep showing up.”
BUILD ENCOURAGING FRIENDSHIPS. If you’re going to be faithful over the long haul, you’ll also need fellowship, he says. Citizen 7 Indy provides a mechanism for being intentional with friendships.
DANTE COOK TRIVIA
Favorite hobby? Coaching high school football at a program he helped start about 4 years ago.
“Go-to” snack and beverage? Oreos and Crystal Lite
Favorite restaurant locally? Bru Burger or Root & Bone