Apr 13, 2010

"Soccer son" does good

It's nice when one of your kids can articulate a lesson learned. And it's even nicer when he is prepared to take that lesson and impart it to others.

Like one of my board members told me, after reading the testimonial, "If you never get any other reward for your work then this would be a great."

I wish I could be satisfied with that. It is some consolation, but given my "Joan of Arc" nature, it is just not enough.

Here, you can judge for yourself.



"
How Soccer in the Streets changed me?

Soccer in the Streets came into my neighborhood and took interest in some kids who know one else cared about. These people knew nothing about us. Yet they believed in us more then we believed in ourselves.

Soon they rubbed off on us and some of started to even believe that maybe we were worth being saved. A lot of organizations showed up and left just as quickly as they came. When you are expecting someone to leave you do everything possible not to let your guard down and be disappointed all over again. How does the saying go, “fool me once, shame on me”? We used ask each other; Why do they stick around even though we give them our best shot? Why is this organization different from the rest?

Then we came to realize they were just weird and out of the norm. Who were these people and why are they not just trying to make a buck off of us? Maybe they are just police officers undercover and we’re just pawns in another bust. We were always used to being abandoned or used. The only people who cared in our life were our family and they were kind of stuck with us.

Well turns out they really just cared about our well-being and they were in it for the long haul. One day I asked Jill what the worst part about coming in our type of neighborhood. I was sure she was going to say the possibility of being shot or maybe mugged. She told me that the worst part was that she knew she wasn’t going to be able to save everyone.

Soccer in the Streets came in and taught what it meant to be humane and what was right from wrong, they taught us that there was more outside of Keystone Apartments and that we had a right to it just as much as anyone else did. Now I’m older and have decided that it’s time for me to start my own organization and start teaching people the same principles Soccer in the Streets gave me. And to think this all started with an old baseball field and a soccer ball."

No comments: