Working With Throwaways

“These kids have never had someone tell them “I love you” and really mean it before.”

- Gordy Nichol

Working With Throwaways

I’ve driven to Sun Valley, Idaho before.  Every time I’ve made the drive it has been long and hard.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve always thought that the four to five hour drive was time wasted as I’ve yearned to arrive.  That stretch of road seemingly turns into a never-ending treadmill rather than a means of transformation.

My recent trip on that same road opened my eyes to an alternative type of transformation as my friend Gordy Nichol used the time to teach me about the volunteering he and his wife Jackie do.

“Let me give you an example of our program’s success.”  Gordy said as he glanced over at me while sitting in his car’s passenger seat.

He then went on to tell me of a teenaged boy.  The boy had been held captive by the life he had been living as a gang member in an inner city neighborhood.  Gordy had begun to work with him through a six-week program designed to give such teenagers an alternative view of the world, to show them that they have a choice in their lives.

“Toward the end of his six weeks the boy came to me and said, ‘If I’m sent back to my neighborhood, the same friends and environment, I’ll never make it out.  I’ll end up going back to gang life and that will lead to my death.  I need the judge to give me an alternative.  What should I do?’  I said, write what you said to me down and give it to the judge so he can see that you’ve spent time thinking through your life and how you want to change it.”  Gordy replied.

He then went on to tell me that the boy did as he suggested and that the judge had said he had never seen anyone take the time to write down such a sincere and well thought out statement.  In the end, the judge sent him to live at the far end of the state, in a home where he became the first person in his family to earn a high school diploma and receive a scholarship to continue his studies in college.  His chosen path to a better life wouldn’t have been possible without caring volunteers showing and demonstrating another view and available passageway into a previously unknown world.

Another unknown for kids working with Gordy and associated volunteers is genuine love. 

“One girl we were working with was finishing the program and she said, ‘Gordy, I’m really going to miss you!’  I replied, I’m really going to miss you too because I love you.  That’s when she said; ‘Nobody’s ever said that to me and really meant it before!’ These kids have never had someone tell them “I love you” and really mean it before.”  Gordy said with a blaze in his eyes.

I looked through the windshield and saw Salt Lake City appear in front of me as if we had been driving at a blazing fast speed to get there.  I looked at the clock on the dashboard and saw that we hadn’t been speeding; it was just that Gordy’s stories of love and devotion had turned time I had viewed as a throwaway into something special. 

Perhaps each one of us could benefit from the same miracle in our own lives.  Volunteering to change the life of another person is always time turned into something special.