Faith + Sweat
Sometimes you have opportunities in life to touch something truly extraordinary. I’ve been blessed to have had that opportunity with Start Out Right.
An event that began literally as a dream in 2007, Start Out Right takes place in late August to provide backpacks filled with school supplies for the kids in the community of Casino Road in Everett, WA. This is an area that is home to more than 2,000 K-12 students. 73 percent of whom are considered low income. More than 17 languages are spoken in this concentrated community, and it isn’t uncommon for kids to be shuffled between homes, staying with different relatives or friends or foster parents, several times during the school year. There are violent gangs that stake claim to the neighborhood and child prostitutes as young as 13 are not uncommon. The schools charged with educating these children struggle with these and other challenges.
Start Out Right as a backpack giveaway isn’t going to solve these problems. But it is a beginning. A step in the right direction. Not just because it has to-date provided more than 3,000 backpacks filled with supplies to area kids, but because it serves an arguably more important purpose: it brings the community together and shows these kids that they are loved.
Check out the video of last year’s Start Out Right and you’ll get a sense of what I mean:
This is a collaborative volunteer effort that now includes the church, police, educators, civic organizations, businesses and residents. And it is proof that change isn’t impossible. Making a difference doesn’t require a mandate from some government agency. And it certainly isn’t something we need to wait around for someone else to do. When we come together and solve the small problems in our own backyards, the trickle effect is so much larger than we can imagine.
In addition to Start Out Right, many of the kids on Casino Road also attend a regular after school homework club organized by Casino Road Ministries. There is now a local soccer club – FC Casino Road – that helps to keep some of the gang activity at bay by providing alternative activities for the local youth. There are block parties and bbq’s taking place at apartment complexes. There is free tax help provided that has returned hundreds of thousands of dollars to the hard working people and families of this community. We are starting to see ESL classes take root. But more importantly, neighbors are getting to know each other.
I no longer live in Everett, and my dealings with Start Out Right are far smaller than they were at the onset. I’m no longer involved in the fundraising or grant writing. I’m not organizing volunteer meetings. I’m not driving around town trying to find the best deal on erasers. But what is beautiful is that I don’t need to be anymore. This dream has become a reality that is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined. The right people are driving the bus now and my only part to play is as a donor and event volunteer.
This is the part where I ask readers to pull out their wallets, log onto www.startoutright.org and make a tax-deductible donation to Start Out Right.
It’s OK. I’ll wait.
………
Good. Now I have to make one last point. And it’s an important one.
Start Out Right can’t be just a one-off for me. I was blessed to see how the right combination of faith and sweat can turn into real miracles. Now that I live in Westport, it’s important that I look for ways to put that one-two punch together here. Faith is important, but you know what they say about “faith without works.” Sweat is also important, but it alone can get you doing a lot of work in all kinds of wrong ways. When it comes right down to it, it’s really quite simple.
Find a need and meet it.
It’s really not any more complicated than that. I don’t know if the needs I find here will turn into anything as huge as Start Out Right, but one thing’s for certain. If I do nothing, nothing will happen.
