A Stolen Bike And A Stolen Dream

Two summers ago, my family was able to take a brief vacation and enjoy the delights of spending a week on a Northern Michigan lake with warm sun and cool water. When we returned home however, we found that things were not quite as we had left them.

Pulling in the driveway we noticed that our garage door was open. Someone had pried open the locked door to have a look around. My son Toby's bike was the only thing that was taken. He was crushed and showed a mix of sadness, anger, and bewilderment. Thankfully, one of his good friends gave him his old bike so the blow was cushioned.

Toby asked me why someone would steal his bike. My answer was that they probably didn't have enough people around them helping them to make good choices about right and wrong. Imagine for a moment growing up with very little mature emotional support, very little money, and a lot of opportunity to join others in engaging in destructive behavior. What kind of decisions would you have made as a child given that same set of circumstances? My guess is that we would not be a whole lot different.

According to the Forum for Youth Investment, every 26 seconds in America a student drops out of school. That adds up to over 1 million students each year. These students are more likely to continue in the cycle of poverty, be unemployed, and end up in jail. Their futures are at risk.

The sad part of the story is not Toby's bike, but the fact that there are thousands of students who have given up believing in themselves and their futures. Why not steal, or intimidate others, or seek immediate gratification to meet your needs? If you don't, who will? The crushing part of this cycle is that the freedom to dream about a bright future where people believe in me has been squelched. It has been replaced by the belief that you must meet your own needs because no one else cares.

KIDS HOPE USA mentoring is powerful because it can help to change how students see themselves and the possibilities that exist for the future. When we help restore their dreams we help change their world. You can become a world changer for a student in your community too...how about mentoring someone?

Chris Reinsma is the Vice President for Programs at KIDS HOPE USA. He serves as an active member of the Mentor Michigan Providers Council working to advance the quality of mentoring in his home state.