Brandon Besch

Non-Profit Narrative

October 15, 2014

ENGL 1101

                                                       

     

Helping Out the Young

“Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them makes an impression”. This quote by Haim Ginott is stating that whatever you tell a young child they are going to remember that when they grow up. I got the chance to help some local Elementary school children in Fresno and help them learn the importance of education and life skills when I was up there to play junior hockey for the Fresno Monsters. Not knowing what to expect when we showed up to the Elementary school, we were all parked in the parking lot waiting for our sales rep guy and team manager to show up so they could escort us to the schools cafeteria where the children would be waiting for us. As our whole team waited in the parking lot we started to get anxious about what was going to happen. I remembered that my roommate Connor came to this public appearance when he played for the Fresno Monsters in the previous season, so I walked up to him and asked, “ hey dude what do we do with the kids when we walk in the cafeteria, are we supposed to like teach them how to play hockey?”

Connor responded and said, “ all we do is walk in and get into little groups with the children and tell them that education is very important to be successful in life.” In my mind I was thinking that’s not to bad since they are little kids and will just listen to what ever you have to say because they love the Fresno Monsters hockey players. Our team was seen as “famous” to most of the locals in Fresno, so whenever someone would see us in public, especially little kids, they want to know how they can become a Monster hockey player. After I talked to Connor, I heard the PA system come on in the schools grounds and the principle started talking. “ Good morning students, please stand for the pledge of allegiance”, she continued by saying the pledge with all the other students inside their classroom. When they were finished saying the pledge of allegiance, the principle made a quick announcement to the first, second, and third grades saying that they will be having a special guest coming to meet them in the cafeteria today. She didn’t state who was the special guest, which I thought was very cool cause it was keeping the kids excited on who it was going to be.

Our sales rep and team manager finally showed up into the parking lot so we could all go inside and meet the first, second, and third graders that were waiting for us in the cafeteria. As we walked in I could hear one of my teammates whisper, “ holy crap that is a lot of kids dude.” It was true there were a bunch of kids just sitting on the floor of the cafeteria waiting for us to come. The groups of children were facing the other direction facing their teachers as they were explaining what was happening, not knowing that we are literally behind them.

All the kids and their friends kept whispering to each other, “ I wonder who it could be!” I believe one kid said that he hopes it was Santa Claus, cause he had a lot of toys he wanted this year. I thought that was pretty funny, that these kids had no idea it was the Fresno Monsters. The teacher finally told the kids to turn around and meet their special guest for today. Each kid automatically had the biggest smile on their faces and started yelling out of excitement. All the children were screaming, “ OMG OMG OMG, I can’t believe it’s the Monsters!!!”

        After everyone settled down the teachers put the students into groups of three and four depending on how big their class size was. We then as a team split up into groups of two and walked over to a group of students to started talking with them and get to know them. My buddy Holty and I chose our group and sat down with them, to introduce ourselves so the kids knew what our name was. “ Hey guys, my name is Brandon and I’m number ninety-four and this is Dalton and his number is thirty-four.” You could see the kids eyes squint trying to remember who we were on the ice when they got the chance to come to our game. One kid finally remembered and shouted, “ I remember you guys, you’re the one with a black and orange stick and you’re the one with a black and red stick.” I’m not sure if the kid was just spitting out different colors but he was surprising correct. I told him the he was correct and that he had an awesome memory. We started to get into the conversation of how school is very important no matter where you end up in life. Though it was very difficult to communicate with little kids that just think of school as fun time right now, I was hoping that maybe one thing that I was telling and explaining to them, attached to their brain and would remember it when they get older. “ Remember that your education is very important guys, without it you wont make it far in life ok?” All the kids in my group responded with very monotone “I know”.

Thirty minutes went by and our sales rep guy came into the cafeteria and told everyone that they have a little surprise waiting for us outside, “ everyone get up and head to the playground, we have a little setup a little surprise for everyone”. All the kids sprung up like they all had giant spring on their butts. “ All students please get into a straight line so we can go outside in a fashionably matter “, said the teacher. Once all the students got into a perfectly formed line, we all followed our sales rep guy out onto the playground where they had setup a bunch of hockey nets and tons of hockey sticks for the students to grab and start playing with each other.

As soon as the kids saw they hockey stuff laid out in the playground they ran like a bunch of little ants in an ant farm. Sitting their listening to the students yell and have fun playing street hockey reminded me when I was in Elementary school when I used to invite all my hockey friends over on a Saturday after our practices and would all play in the street against each other. I felt like I helped these kids learn some valuable lessons on education and in life when they grow up as well. I thought about an organization outside of Simi Valley, California named PAI or Progression Athletics International, which travels to poor third world countries and teaches the local children about like skills and the importance of their education by letting them play their favorite sport. Standing their watching the students run around playing made me realize that I was sort of doing the same thing by teaching them the things I know and what I have been through so I cant tell them from my own experiences so they don’t make the same mistake as I did. And also by letting them play a little bit of street hockey, I think that it helped the kids remember that one day when the Fresno monsters came to their school cafeteria and taught them about education and life skills, they would always cherish that day when they start getting into Junior high and High school and remember that school is important.