During a recent 2018 Hang Time session, 32 year old Ricky, an “OG” attendee for the
past four years, shocked the entire room during our introduction portion of the night. Typically Ricky is brief during the intros and the “Why you Mad or Glad” section of the evening. On this night, he expressed his inner most feelings and praised all that he learns from being at Hang Time each week. He proceeded to tell everyone that he has been working the same job for three years, and that Hang Time helped him to secure and that he takes the train to work each morning.
Ricky explained that each morning he arrives at the train station he sees the same “young boy” at the station with a cup asking for change from passengers. Ricky described the boy as about sixteen years old and always very polite. After approaching the “young boy”, Ricky learned that the boy’s mother recently passed away and his father is currently incarcerated. The boy wasn’t going to school because he was trying to raise money to eat and find a place to stay.
Ricky whose income is just slightly over minimum wage, took it upon himself to help the boy.
He used his own money to pay for a room at a local boarding home for the boy to sleep. He
also, bought the youth several weeks of food and toiletries. He researched where to get the
youth state assistance and finally helped the youth get a part time job.
After telling the story, Ricky said to the entire packed room of attendees said he is “glad” that he “learned from the best” referring to Hang Time staff and that he now wants to help others the way Hang Time helped him in his life. The entire group was proud and motivated to give back to others by Ricky’s actions.