… met the Walker family, and they had a support system. I met some little league coaches playing basketball and football and the following year I didn’t miss one day of school. So I feel like this is the point where we can kind of get into the minds of the kids and let them know that we’re here for them. And I think that’s what kids ultimately want, they just want someone to feel like someone cares about them. And that’s what we’re trying to do here.”
“Sometimes you think about a kid being in the third grade at that age — being 8, 7 years old or in the fourth grade — having responsibility. Or having stress. No kid at 8 and 9 should have stress. And I was one of those kids. So I know exactly what these kids today are going through. I was going to a school on the other side of town, but I was living with a family on the complete opposite side of town. So there was no way that I could even get to the school to even participate. You know, we didn’t have a car, the city bus didn’t come to where I was living. But any time I would show up to school, it was weird, the teachers would always tell my mom that when he shows up, he’s one of the best students that we have. We just hope that he can show up more. And we just couldn’t do it at that point in time. So I know exactly what a lot of these kids are going through.”
“We literally have a school. It’s not a charter school, it’s not a private school, it’s a real-life school in my hometown. And this is pretty cool.”