Actually, I can't just leave it at that, because there's a very eye-opening story here meant to be shared, so I'm going to sum it up without giving away many details:
I'm talking about somebody who is just out of his teens--and started doing what he's doing now while still in his teens.
He lives about an hour away from a big city and has been spending a lot of his time caring for his sick and elderly dad. He is the primary caretaker. However, he does take out a little down time when he can and will go to this big city for the purpose of finding fun things to do (e.g. concerts, movies, sporting events, etc.)--that is, this was his original purpose for visiting the city.
However, he has found a greater purpose that is more meaningful to him than all of those youthful pursuits put together, having discovered that there were several homeless youth in the city trying to survive on their own.
He has since spent most of his big city time doing what he can to provide for them--and even empower them to help themselves.
He now runs races through the streets of the city in order to raise funds. It has been his habit to keep half the funds to be used locally and send the other half to Invisible Youth Network's headquarters.
Russell has tried to encourage him to keep 100% of the funds for the young people whom he has set out to help. He will sometimes, but he just can't seem to put it out of his mind that the problem of homeless youth isn't just happening in that big city to where he goes.
You will find, when it comes to the homeless population, many will hide away in the shadows and trust few, if any, members of mainstream society due to being persecuted by them in the past.
There are others who have mustered up enough courage to go out to get what supplies they can--enough for both themselves and those hiding in the shadows.
How do they come by these supplies?
Sometimes, they find them in trash cans (food) and (other supplies) out on the curb to be picked up by the trash collectors. At other times, they will shoplift. Still other times, they will pay for the food and other survival supplies with money they've earned themselves through a combination of hustling (prostitution) and panhandling (until they get chased away or arrested).
Occasionally, they will actually find somebody with no hidden agenda who will donate food and survival supplies to them--just sees a need and wants to help.
Such a person is the young man of whom I'm now writing.
I mentioned that he has even gotten them participating in a positive activity to earn some money--and that is getting them to join him in running races.
They have gotten to be a regular sight as they run through the city. Not only do they collect pledges in advance, but people also line the streets and toss coins to them.
Some even come up to them and hand them gift cards to stores and fast-food restaurants.
The only thing that this special young man hasn't been able to supply is shelter. He can afford to listen to them, as listening is free, and he can afford to buy them food and supplies as he gets the money to do so.
However, most of these street kids sleep in parks and on rooftops when the weather is warm and dry. At other times, many manage to find at least temporary shelter from the elements by staying for awhile in somebody's house or apartment.
Unfortunately, the majority of these people want something unsavory in return for the deed.
The weather gets very cold where this young man lives, and, this year, the cold has been more bitter and prolonged.
Just recently, he went to check on his street kids even though his chronic health problems were kicking in. Perhaps, by buying them some coffee and other food in a 24 hour restaurant, he could give several of them an alternative warm spot to spend a few hours.
He never made it there. Unable to drive a car, he gets to and from there by a combination of walking and riding his thumb. He was found unconscious--passed out on the sidewalk--and taken to the hospital. It was touch-and-go for quite awhile, but many prayers and loving thoughts were going out for him.
At this time, we who know and love him are celebrating his being home and eating spaghetti--but not forgetting those who have no home to go to. . .
I have so much more to share, but I'm going to limit it some, or I will never get this blog-entry done.
Things are "chuggin' right along" (as Uncle Kermit likes to say about his 83-years-young self and asking others if they are, too) at IYN, and I believe that 2010 is going to be a very positive year for us in a whole lot of ways!
As for myself, I've recently turned the ownership of our Care2 group over to Tj and have also (for now, anyway) stepped down from hosting there. He's already doing an A+ job of making much-needed improvements re: this group, and this gives me more time to focus on other aspects of IYN, such as keeping this blog current (and, in other ways, getting the written word out about IYN); continuing to serve to the best of my abilities as IYN's Deputy Chairman of Public Relations (which involves the aforementioned plus more) along with finding ways to carry out my duties as such more efficiently; serving on our management team; and my latest endeavor: starting a local chapter of IYN
At this time, the chapter website is a work-in-progress. In some ways, it will always be such, as there will be some static parts to it, but there will also be changes to keep up with everything from the seasons to the latest news. There is still a lot of construction work going on now, but I think it would be well worth your time to take a look--but don't make it your last look, as I'm, currently finishing unfinished articles, adding information, and creating new pages (for starters).
I also have plans on taking a mentoring course from Michele. In fact, I'm already enrolled but am waiting to get some other ducks in a line before I become an active student. I hope to start doing my studies by sometime in February at the latest.
If you want to check out this free-of-charge course, you can find it listed on down the page, as I'm going to be posting the latest version of IYN's online directory at the end of this entry so that you can easily check out several of the many places where you can find vestiges of our mission in Cyberspace, and this directory includes a link to the course.
One more thing about Michele. She has not only started a very active chapter in Puerto Rico, but she has also been the first person to create an IYN website (the one going with her chapter) in a foreign language (Spanish). Click here to check it out!
As many of you know, we at IYN are trying to get Youth Outreach Day eventually recognized as a global event that takes place on the second Saturday of every October, so we are inviting people from all parts of the world to sign at least some--if not all--of the petitions we have circulating here in Cyberspace (which will be added to in time, no doubt).
There are even some hard-copy petitions being circulated in "real life." If anyone approaches you with one, please don't hesitate to sign.
Some petitions have an option of also leaving a comment as to why this is important to you.
Just your signature is sufficient, but a comment about why such a day of recognition and celebration of our youth would be a true blessing would give the petition you're signing a little more "OOMPH!"
One thing I'm doing involves my SuperPoke! Pet, Throw Rug (an adorable, little bunny rabbit).
At this time, I have her and her friends in a habitat that has two indoor scenes and two outdoor scenes, and they're still putting up Christmas decorations. Among those Christmas decorations are the following:
brown gingerbread cookies, buttery gingerbread cookies, white snowflakes, pinkish-red snowflakes, mint-green snowflakes, and candy canes.
For every ten signatures going on an online petition (starting with 150 at the original one through Care2 and with 10 at the other ones), another one of those special decorations will go up (sometimes, one-by-one and, at other times, several at once).
This habitat will be in place until President Obama has been in office for a year--after which a special celebration one will be put in place. We hope by then to have collected at least 1000 signatures on at least one of the petitions--and all would be nice--so that we can send it/them on to the President.
Even when a petition has reached 1000 signatures, there's nothing wrong with collecting even MORE signatures on it. That's one advantage of a Cyberspace petition: It can keep on collecting signatures, even after it's reached its destination!
If you would like to check out Throw Rug's habitat from time to time, you can click on this link:
The story behind this habitat is that Throw Rug participated in Youth Outreach Day last October at Peaceful Park.
While she was there, she got to make friends with some homeless youth and decided that she was going to stay in the park with them until 140 signatures were collected on the initial petition. That took longer than anticipated, so she ended up just barely making it home in time for Christmas.
When she got home, she invited her friends (both old friends and her newfound homeless friends) to come to a Christmas party at her place.
From there, they went on a vacation together--but what the homeless kids didn't know was that the place where they were going was actually a new residence. They would be staying on there for as long as they needed a roof over their heads!
Now, they are drawing out Christmas and still decorating their place.
However, they will be leaving there for a trip to see President Obama when he has been in office for a year and will be having a party in a very patriotic-looking habitat.
After this story plays out, Throw Rug will be put into another habitat--which might or might not have an IYN storyline behind it.
However, Throw Rug and I both endorse IYN and hope that, someday, this wonderful organization can bring in enough donations so that safe, happy, and healthy places to stay will become a reality for our kids.
In SuperPoke! Land we can create Happily Ever After endings to our stories--but that doesn't always reflect what's going on out in the real world. . .
Thanks for reading this far. Just two more subjects to discuss until my next blog-entry.
The first one is including an invitation to sign our petitions, and the next one is posting our most current online directory. . .
These petitions give voice, visibility, and vision to homeless and/or otherwise at-risk youth.
Please sign any or all of them!!!
http://petitions.tigweb.org/enactyouthou
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/enact-y
http://www.change.org/actions/view/enact
Thanks, in advance, for making a positive difference!
______________________________________________
IYN Online Directory
Contact Information:
Russell T. Hartsaw
Founder & Chairman
invisibleyouth@gmail.com
Wayneho Kam
Deputy Chairman - Operations
wk13@duke.edu
Where We Can Be Found:
Angels for Street Kids Chapter - 1,059
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43196194633&ref=mf
Change Org. - New
http://www.change.org/
Friends of Invisible Youth - 3,164
http://www.facebook.com/rhartsaw?ref=profile
Friends of Invisible Youth - 178
http://invisibleyouth.gaia.com
Helping Hands for IYN @ Care2 - 2,391
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/IYN
Invisible Youth Cause @ Facebook - 194
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/?m=7b39c83d
Invisible Youth @ Facebook - 1,121
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51667072778
Invisible Youth @ GAIA - 89
http://groups.gaia.com/homelessness
Invisible Youth @ Twitter - 65
http://twitter.com/invisibleyouth
Invisible Youth Member's Club - 299
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/iynmembersclub
Taking IT Global - 687
http://profiles.tigweb.org/TheChairman
Invisible Youth Network Online Campus:
Online Mentor Training - 27
http://invisibleyouthonlinetrai.groups.live.com/
Positive Youth Development - 11
http://positiveyouthdevelopment.groups.live.com/
http://positiveyouthdevelopment.groups.live.com/
Starting Your Own Chapter - 15
http://startingyourownchapter.groups.live.com/
Youth Internship Program - 7
http://youthinternshipprogram.groups.live.com/
Resources / Online programs:
http://startingyourownchapter.groups.live.com/
Youth Internship Program - 7
http://youthinternshipprogram.groups.live.com/
Resources / Online programs:
Online Management Team - 8 http://managementteam.groups.live.com/
Online Partnership Community - 35
http://invisibleyouthonlinecomm.groups.live.com/
http://invisibleyouthonlinecomm.groups.live.com/
Special Projects:
Senior Advocates of San Diego, California
http://www.orgsites.com/ca/senioradvocates
Website Information:
Child Abuse Services
http://childabuse.services.officelive.com/default.htm
IYN Parent Resources
http://iynparentresources.webs.com/
Invisible Youth Mentoring
http://www.iynmentoring.webs.com/
Invisible Youth Resource Center
ttp://www.orgsites.com/ca/invisibleyouth/index.html
http://iynparentresources.webs.com/
Invisible Youth Mentoring
http://www.iynmentoring.webs.com/
Invisible Youth Resource Center
ttp://www.orgsites.com/ca/invisibleyouth/index.html
Total Member's Count: 9,350
Updated: January 6, 2010
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