I just call him freckles
October 24, 2005
By Cam Tait
A 12-year-old boy with brown hair and prominent freckles on his cheeks sat on the third step of a stairway leading to the basement of a house on the north end of the downtown Edmonton area. It was a cool January morning back in 1994 and this boy named Ken said he'd had a good Christmas and there were plenty of cool presents under the tree. But something was still on his wish list; something that even Santa might have trouble hauling down the chimney. Ken wanted an Uncle - an older man he could do things with. His brother had an Uncle and they did all kinds of neat stuff. On this January morning, all Ken wanted was an Uncle of his own, someone to hang out with, go to sporting events with, and even share knowledge about (sshh!) dating. His story was a poignant one; Uncles at Large - an agency that matched boys from fatherless homes with men - held a news conference to share some discouraging news. There were three times as many boys as there were Uncles.
Clearly, volunteers were needed - four or five hours a week, staff members said, to share with boys aged eight to eighteen. On the way back to the office after the news conference, I couldn't get Ken off my mind. There are some people who touch you in certain ways and certain times. You don't know why. Ken was one of those people, and, as I wrote a story about him for The Edmonton Journal, I was drawn closer and closer to him. The next day Ken and his mother called me at the newsroom to thank me for the story.
There was something special there, a bond that seemed to be growing stronger. I wondered if Ken would ever have someone to go to hockey games with, or if his mother would let him miss a morning of school to attend a Los Angeles Kings practice in Edmonton, where he just might have a 30-second private conversation with a light-haired man wearing No. 99. What if he could have his picture taken with him? Would he ever walk down the fairway of the 18th hole of a golf course to meet up with other friends on the putting green? I wondered, too, how Ken would enjoy waking up at 3:30 a.m. for a flight to Los Angeles and a visit to Disneyland, and then landing back at the airport some 19 hours after he left. I wanted to know if he would ever kneel down on centre ice at the local rink and hold a city championship trophy, and whom he would share it with. Or what if his first girlfriend dumped him and he needed someone to talk to and nobody was there.
Late last week Ken turned 25. I called to wish him Happy Birthday, but like most young people, he was out. I left a message. After I hung up the phone, I thought of all the questions I had. They all ended with incredible memories. That image of him sitting on the step, looking so lonely, inspired me to take action. For three wonderful years Ken and I were matched through the Uncles at Large program.
The freckles did it for me.
Cam Tait is a sports reporter and columnist for the Edmonton Journal. He covered community investments and volunteers for 19 years. E-mail Cam at cam@charityvillage.com with thoughts, suggestions or ideas.
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