Most times, I struggle to find the correct words to convey to you, the intense significance of the role that the Major Taylor Foundation of Greater Kansas City represents in the lives of young people. I struggle with the words, because the things I see happening to kids in my community are sometimes, unbelieveable at best, and exist in an environment that cannot easily be described by them.
And what is comes down to is…who is going to take responsibility to help someone’s child who is obviously in need of it???
Over the years, my wife Alyce and I have, for a reason that is clear to her, and not so much to me, taken in a number of children into our home. Having 4 children who seem to make friends pretty easily and make friends who visit. And we have discovered that not many of them have the advantage of the "nuclear family" atmosphere that exists in our home. You may think I am kidding, but every Friday night, without fail, at least 3 three youth make their way to our house, and most times twice that many. This weekend, ’cause they all knew we were getting prepared for racing on Saturday, and came to support Thomas and Christian, we had a total of 10 teenagers who stayed at our house. And I mean the entire weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!! We even got Alyce’s neice, Jenetta 19, to ride a bike on the trainer…her first time on
a bike since she was 11.
One kid in particular caught my undivided attention this weekend. His name is Dell. Dell is 13. He has a 15 yr old brother, Clifford, who has been coming to the house all of the time in the past, to play basketball and visit his cousin Josh,21, who lives with us.
But Clifford has stopped going to school…even tho he is a very smart, articulate kid.I see him in the middle of the day, wandering the hood, still in his school clothes. I see him huddled up with grown men who look like they are in need of some "controlled substance". I don’t really know what they are doing, but I’m no dummy either. Clifford stopped coming over last summer, ’cause he said that he needed to "make some money". Clifford actually showed up at the house a couple of weeks ago, at night, in the cold, with no shoes on…he said his mother put him out and would not let him back in the house. And Josh tells me that those type of things happen between them and mom. He stayed with us for 4 days, until he could contact his father, who lives here in the city, finally came and got him.
Now, Dell has always come with Clifford. Always in the background, quiet, and never smiles. All the boys always comment on how, "cool" Dell is. But this weekend, he showed up alone. No words, just hanging out, even when Clifford amazingly showed up to play some ball with a couple of his "friends" in tow. I really think that he came to check on Dell for some reason. I never even saw them talk to each other. Clifford and his boys finally left, and Dell stayed behind. I talked with him a bit, he said everything was fine, he just wanted to hang out with us. I had Josh let Dell’s mom know where he was and just let things happen. They all played basketball, played video games, eat all of our food and finally started prepping for Saturday morning.
Watching the boys, Dell spoke up and said he would like to try riding a bike. We went to the attic, pulled out a frame, some wheels, handlebars and a seat and fitted him, right there in our living room, with his first bicycle ever. I grabbed my camera before he got it, and when Christian handed that bike over to Dell…OH MY GOD!…that 13 year old cracked the first smile I had ever seen on his face. I wanted to cry… And I know it was real, ’cause it was gone just as fast. But I did get the picture! What a special moment for my family and MTFGKC! This is what we were MEANT to do.
I fitted him with some riding clothes, shoes, helmet and gloves and made him go get dressed in them. When he came out, you could just see that somehow he was different. It was just in his face. He rode around in front of our house on that bike for hours.
The next morning, we took Dell to the final Spring Fling race, in Lawrence, Kansas. He got to see his very first bicycle race. He asked very intelligent questions, and it was really the first time I had ever heard him talk more that two or three words. And the whole time, I became aware that he was really paying attention to me. He was watching everything I did, and stayed with me more than his cousin Josh. It made me remember that I may represent something that he does not have in his life.
I think that Thomas and Christian were both inspired by having Dell around. Thomas won the Jr. Catergory race, and placed 2nd overall, despite missing two races in the series, because we did not have the transportation to them. Christian did his best race of the season, placing 6th. And boy, did Dell get a kick out of Thomas crossing the line in first place! He told me that he would like to try. Keep you posted on that.
Dell decided to go home Sunday morning. He said he wants to keep his equipment at our house and we have plans on riding with him during the week. And I think the boys are right, he is a "cool" little dude. I really look forward to him being around.