One more reason I love my job

Two days ago I got to be a part of something I'm really still thinking over. A couple posts back I shared this video:





We are partnering with an Atlanta city school, Woodson Elementary, to provide each of those children with a new pair of shoes. The people of BC gave so much in the one Sunday that we are also providing them with a playground and snacks at the end of the day so that they don't have to go home hungry.

Well, on Monday, a few of our staff went down to the school to begin the process of measuring the kid's feet for their new shoes from New Balance. The principle, Dr. Viola Blackshear, gave us a tour and talked about how far they have come in the past few years. She is a woman on a mission and I can't imagine how much she has impacted the little lives that she is shepherding. She tells all of her students, several times every day, that they can, and should, go on to college. It made me wonder how many of those children have never heard someone tell them that before she did. And it made me thankful that I had parents that went to college and it was never a doubt in my mind that I would too.

Walking into classrooms and having children line up before you, fresh with excitement on their first day of school, would always make for a good day in my mind. Something about their sweet smiles and innocence was very contagious. We measured their feet, felt where their toes were in the shoes they had on, and helped a few untie some stubborn knots and re-tie their sneakers. The only difficulty I had was trying to spell most of their names. This was solved in short order by getting the class list from the teachers. Since I am five years behind in the trend and just now reading Freakonomics, where they discuss different naming trends, this had a certain irony to it for me.

I walked away with competing emotions. One of thankfulness for the blessings that I had been born into a family headed by educated and successful parents, almost automatically ensuring me of some measure of educational and socioeconomic success as a result. That I grew up with books, dental care, back-to-school shopping and never went hungry; all things that I took for granted. Another was a sense of sadness over the hardships that those children take for granted. That crime, violent crime at that, hunger and worn-out shoes are something that is commonplace for them. Overall though, there were a lot of smiles, a lot of excitement for their new shoes, and a lot of cute kids happy to tell you all about their first day of school.

I can't wait for the 22nd when we get to go early on a Friday morning and give each child their new shoes. It's going to be a lot of fun for everyone.


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Listening to: Switchfoot - Dare You To Move
via FoxyTunes