Last Place First

Last place first

Today was one of those days that you thought was pretty basic and normal, until you got to the end of it and reflected. My reflection started upon me beginning the book “Stones into Schools” By Greg Mortensen. Some of you may know Greg from his first book called “Three cups of Tea” . If you are not familiar with it I strongly recommend it. In brief it is about a mountain climber who through a series of events ends up in Pakistan where he realizes that there are no schools for women. He has spent his entire life since then raising money and building schools for the children of Pakistan

Last Place first means that people never focus on the last place, when the last place is what needs the most help. His mantra has become last place first, because every place that he wants to build a school is the last place, and he makes it first for him. That is a basic and yet profound statement.

Last Place First.

It also brought me back to earlier this week when as part of my SKL Leadership Series we spent the morning at the juvenile detention center at 25th and Keystone. We saw a few cases and then heard from Judge Morris as she spoke about the tremendous hardships that some of these kids face. No strong role models for miles, no college grads to be seen, babies having babies. Last Place First

I then began to think of a meeting last week meeting at the John H. Boner Center on the East side to discuss Giving Sum’s participation in the Super Bowl Legacy project. Looking back on the conversations between myself, a current resident of the East Side, and a Giving Sum member who was raised on the east side that is exactly what we were discussing. Last Place First.

The east side has an overwhelming amount of abandoned homes and absentee landlords. They have parks that are not functioning. The children of the neighborhood have no infrastructure of even the most basic of things, including baseball diamonds, soccer teams, little league, YMCA’s, boys and girls clubs, nothing. How do we expect to engage our youth not only in curbing obesity and focusing on health, but also developing leadership skills, interaction with others, and team work, if we don’t give them a chance.

I am thankful that there are organizations such as the John H. Boner center that are doing tremendous work with both the people of the neighborhood, and the infrastructure as well. I am thankful that the Super Bowl Legacy Project is shining a light on this part of the city. Giving Sum and Indy Hub are partnering on a volunteer day on the east side with the Boner Center on Saturday, April 24th.

So as you begin to think about how you can make a bigger difference in the community, I ask you to keep that mantra in mind. It could be a place, a person, an issue. If we all looked within ourselves how we can make a difference, make an impact, no matter how small or large, we would be in a much better community.

For more information on the John H. Boner Center go to
www.enn.org

For Greg Mortenson go to www.gregmortenson.com