“Every Word Counts”

Make it all count while it’s worth

The best of your conversation

Holds of all the girth and elation

For a good conversation

Is a bringer of self motivation?

Every word counts

Towards the support of your creation

Of Mental thought?

For it’s the best friends that cannot

Be bought.

by Colby

He also knew what it was like to have his possessions thrown carelessly into garbage bags during multiple moves. Quite often those bags would be thrown out in the trash.

But then his Foster Dad started a charitable foundation called Suitcases4Kids.  Its missions is ““Helping Foster Children Move with Dignity, One Suitcase at a Time!”

As their homepage says: “We embrace the needs of children moving into or out of state care, any type of shelter or homeless environment and provide them with a suitcase for their personal belongings so that children gain a sense of dignity and help to create a better world.”

A lofty goal, but one that Colby strongly believed in.

On the website there is a letter from a boy, CJ, who talks about his life and how tough he finds living in the foster care system.  Colby knew that life and he worked hard helping kids like CJ feel better about themselves.

When not in school or playing sports he could be found collecting suitcases, working at the many collection drives, or packing them into storage facilities.

Sometimes late into the night.

The organization has collected and distributed well over 15,000 suitcases, duffel bags, and back packs.  But there are over 463,000 children in the United States alone so there is a long way to go.

With everyone’s help Suitcases4Kids plans on getting there.

Let’s face it, we don’t always know where kids are at in their heads.  A lot of them don’t either.  Children that are bullied, have a disorder like bipolar, asperger’s, or adhd, or even quiet reserved kids can have destructive thoughts that can lead to even more destructive actions.  These can include depression, alcohol and drug abuse, severe anxiety, and worse.

There is an old African proverb, made famous by Hillary Clinton, that it takes a village to raise a child.

Today because of location or circumstances parents and children have become isolated from the community or even small circle of friends that help us raise our children.

We and our children all need Ben Speaks and other organizations like it to get through everything that life throws at us.

Then we can be successful and our kids can be successful too.  None of us wants to experience that final solution!

The sad thing is their parents don’t always know it. Why?  Because their children are afraid to tell them.

The kids think that if they tell their parents it will get back to the school.  Then the bully(s) will be punished.

But of course it will be found out who told on them.

And the bullying will get worse.

The following video is about a boy who came out about being gay at school when he was in first grade.  Some of his classmates took exception to this and began to bully him.

This has continued on through the years until this past August.  He was going into eighth grade but didn’t want to go through this anymore.

At four in the morning he made this video:

Colby was not gay.  He accepted all people no matter who they might be.

Until the writer gives it an edge

The emotion shows the power of words

Whether sadness or shame

Pin no farther blame

For the negative feelings

Are not the same?

by Colby

But also a fragment of the mind

Sneaking up like a back blow from behind

When the thought reaches paper the emotions build a perfect bind

by Colby

Lies the greatest of his emotion.

It ends not until words are on paper,

Where emotions become solid, not vapor.

by Colby

For the writers wording is his greatest puzzle

by Colby

Don’t let your head roll

Do not be on the desk in a heap

Just trying to fall asleep

Where are the posture and spine like a still pole

A polite gaze that does not deplete

Would make the teacher’s job complete

by Colby

The children run astray

Nevertheless, its walls are not all defiled

Brand new, like it was built today

The banned cell phones being redialed

Students are the beasts that prowl the dense floor of the hall

Just waiting on their best friends to call

by Colby