You Really Can Make a Difference!
April 30, 2009 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on You Really Can Make a Difference!
I have to tell you that being a mentor to my former foster youth is so rewarding to me. To watch them open up and blossom is just so incredible. Sade, is an inner city kid who I started mentoring in August, 2008. She was very skeptical and not real talkative on our first meeting. I had to pry information out of her. It’s kind of like peeling an onion, each time another layer comes off. And every time I see her she is more beautiful, inside and out.
I am sharing the email I received from Sade so you can see how much impact we have on these young people’s lives and how proud I am of her.
“I wanted to share with you all what I did this past weekend. I’m on a board called CCY (California Coalition for Youth) and we do a bunch of advocacy work for foster youth, former foster youth, and homeless youth. Every year we have a conference and this year we just had ours. Our Executive Director Heather Dearing asked me if I wanted to share my story and I said yes, but I had no idea how many people I would touch. I walked into the Capital and the pictures that I’ve attached for you all was right next to Arnold Schwarzenegger and people where reading the stories and asking me to take pictures with them. The point of this email isn’t to “show off,” it’s to thank you all. Somehow, some way, you all have played a part in my life that allowed me to get to this point and I wanted to thank you all for “molding” me into the person I am today. Almost everyone I’m sending this email to has seen me through the worst of the worst, you’ve seen me when everyone else gave up on me, and this display at the Governor’s wall is proof of how you can help someone if you JUST DON’T GIVE UP…”