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Wuz Up? My name is Samuel, but friends call me Sam or Sammy. I am 14 years old. I go to School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I am in the 9th grade. Instead of writing about me, I'm going to tell you how the Nidra King Center has helped me to stay off the streets and out of trouble.
I moved to Minneapolis from Indiana about a year ago. My mom sent me to live with my dad, because I was starting to get into a lot of trouble in Indiana. She figured it was best for me to live with my dad and stepmother in Minneapolis. Well, when I got to Minneapolis, I found myself the oldest of 3 kids. I couldn't go anywhere or do anything, and I had to stay in the house to babysit all the time, because our neighborhood is kind of rough and they didn't want me to get into any trouble or hook up with the wrong kinds of friends.
I needed a friend really bad, someone to talk to and hang out with. There was a kid around my age who lived nearby that I would see once in a while, I thought he was my friend, but I didn't get to see much of him. My stepmother sent me to the store one day, and I was passing by the Nidra King Center when this lady stopped me, asked me how I was, and if I lived around here. I told her my name and said "yes" I live a few blocks away. She asked me if I knew what they did in the Nidra King Center building. I said "no", and then she told me it was a youth center, and they have all kinds of activities and field trips for kids, a lot of whom are around my age. She invited me to come in and look around. I told her I couldn't just then, because I had to go to the store for my "mother".
I went to the store, and then back home. When my dad came home from work, I told him about the center, and asked if I could go there sometimes. He told me I could go that next day, so I did. I had to have my parents fill out all kinds of paperwork in order to join, but I got permission to stay that day, and bring the paperwork back the next day. The people there were really friendly -- kids and adults. They have computers, books, games, an exercise bike, music, a piano, sports events, different activities you can sign up for, like sports, swimming, and youth groups. I liked the computers and sports, and after a while I got signed up for the Youth Entrepreneurship Program. Everything started going so great, and everybody liked me so well, that I soon had a bunch of new friends, and I didn't mind being at home anymore. Pretty soon, my brother, Ty-Ray, was allowed to come to the Center too.
When things get too bad at home, I go to the Nidra King Center and find Miss Jannise, and then I talk to her about it for a while. She's always got time for us kids, even though she's really busy all the time doing other stuff for her job at the center. Then there's a lot of guys that volunteer, like Mike and Marvin, I can go and talk to to them any time too. A lot of us boys play sports under Mike and Marvin's coaching skills. We play baseball, basketball and football. We have a lot of fun. Mike and Marvin also help the Youth Entrepreneurship Program, by helping us put together fundraiser events, like washing cars, and selling things like lemonade, ice cream cones, cookies and cakes and stuff. The girls do the bake sales mostly, thats girl stuff anyway.
This summer, when I was riding my friend's bike, a car chased me and knocked me off my bike. I didn't know why the car was chasing me, but the guy looked really mean, so I didn't know what he would do if I just stopped, that's why I pedaled as fast as I could, but the car was faster than me, and the guy deliberately knocked me off the bike with his car. Miss Jannise saw what happened through the window of the center, by the time I could get up and start running for help to the center, she and Mike were out there. The guy in the car had caught me, and was trying to beat me up when they got to me and made him stop. I went into the center, and they called the police. When the police got there a few minutes later, I found out why the guy in the car was chasing me. It seems that my friend had stolen the man's bike, he recognized it and wanted it back. I wasn't hurt bad, but I learned a valuable lesson that day. Now, I don't ride anyone's bike but my own. It was wrong for the man to run into me and knock me off the bike, but he didn't go to jail or anything. The policeman just asked me if I was okay, and I told him yes, and I also told him who let me ride the bike and gave him my friends address and phone number. The policeman gave the man in the car a warning, letting him know that he can't just hit people deliberately with his car, and the man got his bike back. It was a scary situation, and I didn't understand why the man got away with hitting me with his car, and I wondered, if I had been a white kid, if the man would have gotten arrested, or if the man had been a black man, would he have gotten arrested and taken to jail. It seems to me that there's laws against hitting people on purpose with cars, and they should be enforced. The policeman wanted to talk to my father. I dreaded that because I thought my dad might send me back to Indiana, and I had been having so much fun at the Nidra King Center that I didn't want to go back. My dad got mad because I was not riding my own bike, and pointed out to me that I could have gotten blamed for stealing the bike and been arrested. He told me that I should only ride my own bike from now on because I'll never know for sure whether someone else's bike is theirs or something they have stolen. He said its the same thing with cars, when I get old enough to drive. I should never get into a friends car unless I know for sure that its their car, or their parents gave them permission to use their car. That way, I won't run the risk of getting arrested for being in a stolen car. That some advice that I will remember for a very long time. Mike and Jannise told me the same thing.
I haven't been in any trouble like I used to get into in Indiana. I think I owe a lot of that to the Nidra King Center and their staff. I have used the computers at the center to brush up on my school skills like math, english, history and science, and I play some games on it too. I wish we had some newer computers though, because there are a lot better programs out there that I've been looking through magazines and catalogs at. I'd like to be able to learn to do some of that Desk Top Publishing, and stuff, and the Youth Entrepreneurship Program kids have been talking about doing a business that we can use computers in, to do work for people who want stuff done on them. The problem is, we just have old equipment and can't run the programs we need to get the business going right. We're saving the money we are earning from the fundraisers, but we're still a long way off from being able to buy a computer that would be the kind we need, and the printer we will need too.
If you have some newer computers to donate to the center, you can do it here. All of us kids there will appreciate your generosity, and we will use the newer computer for enhancing our skills and knowledge of software, as well as enhancing our basic learning skills. Well, that's all about me. Thanks for visiting my page.