Ben Franklin

This past Saturday launched a new program year for the City Heroes. This year we were charged with recruitng 150 high school aged youth to participate in our 6th month community service and leadership development program, a very large number but one that my team and I took head. On Saturday we say all of our hard work come together in our first day with our City Heroes.

As part of our Saturday we took groups of Heroes down to the old city section of Philadelphia to teach them about civics and what it means to be part of a community and of course to teach them a little bit more about the great Ben Franklin. We took the Heroes to the Franklin Underground Museum located in the sqaure where Ben Franklin's house was located. Now, I know very little about Ben Franklin, I know some but very little so this was also a new experience for me as well.

While we were in the museum I had one Hero come up to me and ask me a question. Earlier that day I had a chance to talk to this Hero and I was asking him about school and about his senior year and having a good talk with him and when I asked him what he was doing next year he looked at me in a odd sad sort of way and said "Miss Allyson I have no idea what I am going to do next year" it broke my heart a little because he seemed like such a great kid and he was really interested in community service and bettering himself in different ways and I really hurt to see him so lost as to what to do once he was done with high school. So, needless to say when we were in the museum and he came up to me and asked me a question I was excited that he wanted to know more. This Hero came up to me and said Miss Allyson, I dont know much about Ben Franklin can you help teach me more?" The first thought that came to my mind was "Oh S$!t what the heck do I know about Ben Franklin?!" So, I quickly scanned around me for more information and I pulled together what little I knew about good old Ben and I explained to the Hero that Ben Franklin was born in Boston, explained to him about Ben's influence on international politics at the time, and then explained to him bow he was an inventor was well. It was very little but I could tell this Heros was really listening to me. When I was done the Hero paused to finish writing down what I was telling him and then he said to me "Thank you Miss Allyson, nobody has every taught me about this before, I am thankful that you did." And that was that.

That phrase he said, his simple thank you was so powerful and uplifting for me that it evaporated all my stress over building a great program because in his simple thank you he reminded me why I do my work, he reminded me that I am changing lives in ways that I do not realize he reminded me that so many high school youth need a program like City Heroes and that so many times people tend to forget about high school aged youth, and he reminded me that we cannot forget about them, that we need to support them, teach them, and listen to them. I do not like how most people do not care about high school aged youth. We need to care. We cannot fail them, too many of them have enough people fail them everyday. I will never forget that simple "thank you" because that simple phrase has given me my drive. My drive to not fail these kids.