Ho Fame

Photo From Here

Just have to post pictures of sidecar racers - can't help myself. Now for the real reason for the post:

The focus of this post is something much more serious than motorcycle racing and that is, hunger. Jimmy got an e-mail the other day about one of the boxing clubs in Indy. The coach spends up to 4 hours per day driving around, picking kids up and taking them back home from the gym. In addition to teaching them boxing skills, he's the go to guy when they're having problems at school, and he feeds them. The e-mail asked the other clubs if they would consider bringing along some food items on the first night of the Golden Gloves to help out a little bit. 

The Missus and I stopped at Aldi's the other day and picked up a box of groceries to make a little donation from our club. It's not much but it's something. We have kids come to our club who can't afford their passbooks or their monthly fee sometimes, so the club will cover it. We had a fundraiser Monday and we didn't make enough to cover all of the expenses of gym and coaching licences along with five or six trips to Indy for the upcoming Gloves. We're very fortunate to have a building rent free or we'd have to fold up our tent and our guys would have no place to go. We're no different than most clubs catering to amateur boxers. Never enough money to go around but it was never about the money.

I've been hungry before. Sometimes I get busy and work through lunch. On my bicycle trips and long road runs I've worked up an appetite but I've never really been hungry, hungry. I always knew there was something waiting for me when I finished what it was I was doing and got cleaned up. The Missus and I didn't blink an eye about going out to a nice restaurant the other day. It wasn't always that way but I never had to worry about really going hungry. 

I read in the paper the other day about David Rubenstein. He's a billionaire who's buying up things and donating them to the government. He purchased a copy of the Magna Carta for $21 million and returned it to the National Archives. I'm not knocking Mr. Rubenstein. He's committed to doing good works with his wealth. All of the computer billionaires are giving money away as well. The Gates Foundation. The Facebook and Google folks with a combined wealth of about $35 billion give lots of money away. In spite of the generosity of the billionaires and everyone else - church groups, soup kitchens, food pantries, you name it - there are still kids wondering where their next meal is coming from. Kids that are lucky to get some Ramen noodles and Kool-Aid at a boxing gym.

There's been poor people around probably forever. Probably always will be, too. I don't have any answers to cure the problem but if this is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, how can there be hungry kids? I know the boxing community will respond to the e-mail and there will be boxes of food donated. Many of the gyms are dealing with similar issues but they will still dig in and give a little something and Coach Curles will be able to continue with his mission. But that won't stop other kids from going to bed hungry. 

I'm sure most of us could help in some small way. Donate a little time or money to the local food pantry. Earmark a little something in the offering plate to help feed the hungry - there is an organization specifically to Feed the Children. Just do a little something if you can. We'll all be better off for it.