At age eleven, Keily was headed down a dangerous path. Her life revolved around drugs, staying out late, being accepted into a gang and treating her family with disdain. Now at age fifteen, Keily’s life is very different. She is earning A’s and B’s in high school and working toward her goal of attending college.
The difference? Two years ago, under threat of being held back in school, Keily (with the support of her family) decided to change her life and began participating in Sunday Friends. In fact, Keily, her mother and her 17 year old sister Dalia have missed only three programs in the last two years.
In each six-hour program, these children and their families attend classes, write dozens of thank-you letters to donors, make gifts for nursing home residents, prepare and serve healthy foods and help clean up the school grounds.
The program activities may seem simple, but the effect can be profound. Sunday Friends gives participants such as Keily the opportunity to learn important life skills while spending quality time with their families. The opportunity to earn things rather than seeking handouts instills confidence and self-reliance.
“Sunday Friends also has even helped me to get along with my own family - - to never look back and to be who I am and not what other people expect me to be. Without Sunday Friends I think I would still be lost in the world I lived in before.” -Keily, age 15
Below is a true story that we shared with our Sunday Friends community in the Spring of 2006. Every word is true except for the name of the boy:
When we first met Andy, he was 12 years old, living with his disabled mother in a homeless shelter where we held our programs prior to moving to Lowell School. But shelter rules called for them to move after five months. Their next "home" was the living room of a relative.
During their stay at the shelter, Andy became an active contributor within Sunday Friends. Despite the poverty and upheavals in his life, Andy continued to join us in helping others by working on the Treasure Chest team...skating to our programs on the rollerblades he had earned through his participation in Sunday Friends.
When Andy was 14, we moved to our current location, a distance too far for a boy to travel alone. By 16, Andy had learned to take buses and was looking for a job to pay for his fare as well as food and other necessities. He applied at Sunday Friends and, because of his prior experience, work ethic and enthusiasm, we hired him to be a part-time Treasure Chest Manager.
It has been our joy to see Andy grow in responsibility, reliability and self-confidence throughout the two years since then. Today, he leads program equipment setup, facilitates Treasure Chest "shopping" and fully participates in our program committee meetings. The Sunday Friends community is supporting his efforts to plan for his future, including college, financial aid, employment, budgeting and independent living. Andy's challenges have not dampened his enthusiasm or his dreams. Through it all, his ability to care for himself and others has grown.