tSB

 

Yesterday, Thursday the 11th, 8 members of the Service board (6 of the kids, and 2 of the staff, including Nate Moxley, tSB's Executive Director and a former participant) came in to complete the memorial posters for tSB's reverse memorial campaign. In case you didn't know, the campaign takes street memorials, normally used to remember lives lived and gone, and flips them around to celebrate the lives of kids that have been changed for the better by tSB. The really amazing thing about yesterday wasn't the memorials, but it was the kids themselves. All of them were really nice and really cool to talk to, and they all had great aspirations for their futures(to look at them, you don't necessarily think that they have plans to go onto become artists and engineers, both of which struck a nice chord with me). And I think we all had some reservations about whether or not they would be able to make the memorials look good, and they more than delivered on that. One guy spent two hours doing the coolest graffiti type for the headline. Another girl drew the likeness of the girl depicted in her memorial. Another guy made this crazy, half photo-half cartoon image of the kid in his memorial. I think the most amazing part had to be Chiloe. Chiloe was one of the stories we used for the memorials and she came in to make her memorial herself. Chiloe's story was one of the most powerful. She has a history of sexual abuse and heavy drinking, and when she was younger her grandfather was tortured and disappeared in her homeland of Chile. The fact that she 1) wrote all this out for the public to read, and 2) came in to make the memorial herself were both incredible. And knowing her past, I couldn't believe I was talking to this cool, smart, self-confident, well-adjusted high school senior.

All of it was a testament to Nate, the Executive Director and tSB alum. He came in to do his story too (he had a memorial). You could tell that with every kid that came in there, he had such a strong personal relationship with each of them and cared so much about each of them individually. He asked about how their jobs were going, how school was, and not in a general, throwing it out there way, but he wanted to know how school was for Chiloe,and did Jason's new job pay him enough, all that kind of stuff.

It was a really great experience, and I wish more Creatures had been able to attend. But most of all it makes doing the kind of work we did for tSB really mean something.