Damon Gilstrap has spent much of his life learning how to survive. Now, he’s focused on helping other people learn how to live.
Gilstrap ’22 returned to Onondaga Community College on September 23 for the National Federation of the Blind of New York Resource Fair, where he shared a message shaped by decades of adversity: Your story is not over. “It feels good to be here and to try to help people,” Gilstrap said.
Helping people has become the purpose of his life. “I’ve been mentoring young people, helping them see eye-to-eye." That mission is rooted in a life story that is difficult to imagine, and even more difficult to overcome. When Gilstrap was 9 years old, he found his mother dead from a heroin overdose. “I tried to wake her up. I was angry at her for 40 years because she left me.”
The pain of that loss contributed to decades of heavy alcohol and drug use. Then, about 15 years ago, everything changed again. A massive stroke caused by three brain tumors left one of his vocal cords paralyzed and forced Gilstrap to confront a future he never expected. At the time, he called it the worst moment of his life. Eventually, he came to see it differently.
“It was the worst moment of my life and, it was a gift from God. Because of what happened to me, I’m here today to help young people choose the right road, not the wrong one.” That realization gave Gilstrap a new mission, but there was something missing. He was telling young people that education could change their lives, and he wanted to be able to say he had done it, too. “I was telling kids it was important to go to school, but I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. I wanted to show them that if I could do it, they could do it too.”
So Gilstrap came to OCC. He enrolled in Human Services because he wanted to spend his life helping people who, like him, might need someone to believe in them. “I want to work with the kids no one else wants to work with. Everyone needs to be loved. Even the bad kids need a good person in their life and to know someone cares about them.”
OCC became another chapter in a story that had already included tremendous loss, addiction, homelessness, and illness. Gilstrap completed his Human Services degree in May 2022. That spring, his accomplishments were recognized with two major SUNY honors: the Norman R. McConney Jr. Award for Student Excellence, given to Educational Opportunity Program students who excel academically while overcoming personal obstacles, and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence – Special Award for Overcoming the Odds. “Just being here is a gift from God,” he said at the time. “And winning these is so exciting. I always say if you do the right thing for the right season you will be alright in life.”
Four years later, Gilstrap is still doing the right thing. He is mentoring young people. He is sharing his story. And he is writing another book. His next book, God Doesn’t Make Any Mistakes – The Glory Behind the Story, will continue the story he began in From Tragedy to Homeless to Triumph. He hopes to finish it before the 30th anniversary of his brain tumor. The title says a lot about how Gilstrap now views the experiences that once threatened to define his life. “God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle. I’m here, I’m alive, and I’m helping people."
