I hate leaves pt 2

Last week I mentioned how we spent time in the yard raking leaves and how we need to celebrate the accomplishments. That thought is really being tested now, and my front yard has twice as many leaves as it did last time...and its been raining off and on for two days, so they are still too wet to blow. Its taking all of my imagination to celebrate the victory of last weeks raking. What's worse is the street vacuuming guys didn't come this week so last week's haul is still sitting at the edge of the yard. Its insult to injury.

Here is a cool story for you. I have become great friends with a guy at work named Errol. He runs the mentoring program. All the kids in the mentoring program are children of an incarcerated parent. So basically the odds are stacked against them becoming fully productive members of society. Mentoring is the surest way to help break the cycle. Its really difficult to get people to commit to be a mentor. Big brother, Big sister is always looking for more mentors. The program at SafeHouse (where I work) is so desperate for mentors that many times Errol ends of defacto mentoring several kids in need but unmatched with a mentor. He was telling me about these two brothers who are signed up to get mentors. 16 and 17. Here is the cool part. They are actually looking to go to school. They dropped out for two years, but they want to complete their GED because they for whatever reason have seen the big picture. How many kids in school see the big picture! Errol was telling me that he had found them a day program in the city to get their GED work done and then that program would help them get into Georgia State. The barrier (get this) was bus fare. They can't afford to get there. He paid for their first two weeks out of his oven pocket.

I went home to Stacey and said lets give these kids bus fare for a month. About 100 bucks for the two of them riding Marta (Atlanta's public transit) everyday. I went in the next day and gave Errol 100 bucks. He said "No way dude!" I said, "We believe in what you're doing working with these two boys and if bus fare is a barrier, well we can solve that issue!" Later in the afternoon he called the brothers to check in and told them that their transportation was taken care of for the next month. They couldn't believe it and asked how he was doing that. He told them to not worry about it and concentrate on school and keeping focused on not getting involved in the wrong things. I'm going to get involved on an unofficial basis with the two with Errol's help and I'll keep you posted on how this works out.

The moral of the story is always keep on the lookout for ways to be a part of the solution.