Your Kids May be a Victim

Let's talk about the boy on the porch. You may have seen him as you drive by. He sits in the porch of shabby, small house that needs demolishing. The boy sits on that porch doing nothing.

It is after school and as you wait for the light to change, you wonder why he isn't doing sports and why is he just there, alone? All of your kids are in activities every day after school and the non activity of this boy who must be about 10 years old and this is bothering you.

There is a rumble in the alley next to the porch and you see some older kids in a fancy car. Not much to guess these are drug dealers. The music blares and they are acting manic. The boy on the porch looks up and seems to be watching the kids in the car.

You think to yourself; "This can't be good"! But is it any of your business? The boy needs help. Parents? Someone to care? But maybe he has no one at all who can help.

Then the thought startles you. The boy clearly is on his own. Rents have gone up. Mother must be working more than one job to make it. Just as the light changes, you, observing this scene, remember something.

It tickles at the back of your mind. There is a free camp for disadvantaged kids. What's it called?
You think hard and as the light changes, then it comes to you — TOUCHDOWN CAMP in Verbo, Redwood City! Something about sports and free for kids. I should google this, she thinks glancing back at the boy.

The boy watches the woman zoom by in her car and knows nothing except he will have to get off the porch and go with the gang in a couple of years. That's just how it is.