Shining Amid Burton's Shadows

Reading, lunch, soccer. That's how eight-year-old Edgar describes a typical mentoring hour with Kids Hope USA. And he lists the activities with a shrug, as if to say, Nothing too special. But then in the next breath, talking about his volunteer mentor Levi, Edgar's whole face lights up. It's this movement—from shy shoulders to proud smile—that summarizes everything: for Edgar, for Levi, and for other Burton Elementary students and mentors like them, Kids Hope USA isn't about what, it's about who.

Who #1: The Student

With school out for summer, Edgar passes his time on the one-block stretch of street in southeast Grand Rapids, where he lives with his grandparents. An only child, he rides his bike just down the road to play with his cousins at his tia's [aunt's] house, and in the afternoons he's part of a summer program at Burton Elementary, which is located at the end of the street. As with most kids in the neighborhood, this small area is Edgar's life and his world—and though he's a smiling, polite, and bright-eyed kid in it, even for him the place has too many shadows.

Edgar's dad isn't in his life, and his mom doesn't live with him. His home, despite its pleasant birdcages and potted herbs on the porch, is part of one of the poorest areas of Grand Rapids—during the school year, Edgar and 98% of his schoolmates receive reduced-cost or free lunches because their households are at or below the poverty level. Many of the area kids struggle in class because, like Edgar, they're learning in their family's second language. Most of the neighborhood's young men eventually join a gang for survival.

Thankfully, for Edgar and over 100 others at his school, Kids Hope USA serves as a shining spot: once a week for one whole hour, each of them gets the attention of a caring adult who's nothing to shrug about.

Who #2: The Mentor

At the architecture firm where Levi works, it's not exactly the norm to put away your drafting pencil and drive off for second grade recess. But when at the beginning of the school year Levi heard that Burton needed more KHUSA mentors, he knew it was something he wanted to do and could do. The father of a young daughter, he was looking to learn how to better interact with kids. And just months earlier, in an effort to commit more time to what matters most, he had managed to have his workweek hours reduced from 40 to 32. Plus, he explains simply, for an advocate of social justice this was an opportunity: "To hear that there's someone who needs an hour—there's no reason I can't."