Eric and I have been volunteering with City Mission Flag Football (
http://www.dinobureau.com/football.html) for the past few weeks. We spend around 5 hours every Saturday helping out...Eric coaching and reffing and me doing whatever is needed (tying shoes, passing out snacks, signing kids in, etc). The kids range in age from 6 to 16 and all live in the Brightmoor community of Detroit. To give some background, Brightmoor is roughly 4 square miles and is one of the city's worst communities. There are burned down, boarded up, and decaying houses everywhere and high crime, gangs and drugs. About 20,000 people live in this small area and only about 22% of kids in this community will actually graduate from high school.
The flag football program provides a safe place for the kids to be for 1/2 a day a week and attempts to teach them leadership, teamwork, self-esteem, etc through football. We give out free used football cleats and footballs for them to keep.
This has become the highlight of my week. The kids that show up are so appreciative of the program and so much fun to be around. A few of the kids are a bit of a challenge due to behavioral issues, but seeing them change from week to week is very rewarding. They just need positive reinforcement in their lives. :-)
Here are a few pictures from last Saturday of the group and Eric coaching his JV team (ages 9-11).
