Our community center director and invited guest coach of the San Pedro Elementary´s track and field team, continues to practice weekly with the 6th grade team and the other staff members are devoted to being the team's biggest fans, cheering loudly and proudly. They´ve been sure to learn each kid's name to encourage each player individually during practices and games.
It's clear that the MARKED- San Pedro sports teams are surprising the surrounding communities this year. For so long, no one believed a team from San Pedro could win. Now that they are winning, some of the competing schools try to say the students have cheated but despite challenge after challenge, the team continues to thrive.
At one of the track and field meets, one of the students showed up excited to participate but the coach noticed the little boy had tennis shoes on that were multiple sizes too big. The little boy looked down and said they were his older sister´s shoes and he did not have any of his own to use. With just a few minutes before the event was scheduled to start, the little boy´s excitement started to leave him as he could hardly walk in the shoes, let alone run a race.
Our staff acted quickly, calling home to see if any of their kids could bring other shoes and without hesitation, one of our staff kids said, “Yes, he can use mine. I´m getting them now and I can bring them!”. Just minutes later, there he came on his bike, pedaling as fast as he could to deliver the shoes, and just as if it were a movie, arrived just in time for the student to put them on.
The tennis shoes were a perfect fit. Tears immediately streamed down the little boy's face. The coach gave him a hand up, a pat on the shoulder, and the little boy went running to his place on the field, wiping his eyes as he called out to his teammates excitedly. When the whistle blew, that boy ran like never before and much to everyone´s surprise, won first place. The team, our staff, and the parents present went wild, celebrating the boy along with the rest of the team.
Later that day, the coach along with some of our staff members were in town for a festival and they ran into the little boy from the team. He had taken a bath, changed clothes, but admitted he had not taken off his medal, and there it hung around his neck still! We can see how gifting a little bit of hope and taking part in a bit of celebration goes a long way and because of that, we continue to cheer from the front row, speak life, and dream with these children so that hope takes over where unjust circumstances and the looks of a dim future once held them captive.