[hr]I used to be a special education teacher for 6 years before I moved into working in a juvenile prison. I used to work with this one kid, called "Johnny" when I was teaching that was very difficult to deal with most of the time. His parents both used drugs during his pregnancy and during delivery. His dad was locked up for drug trafficking and his mother was off and on in his life. He lived with grandmother, and guess what, she was a lesbian. Not to be funny, but I am telling you this because you can see how much this kid had going against him. His grandmother also had very serious health conditions, so Johnny never knew what was going on next in his life.

His family was originally from the mountains of Virginia and he loved to tell stories of his grandpa, whom he seemed to love to no end. After about 2 years of working with this kid, we got to talking about hunting. You know how it is in the public schools, people think you are a barbarian if you talk about killing animals. But this was OUR connection, one that helped the kid bond with me. After another year, this kid started to go downhill with his behavior. Then I believe in the fall of 2004 I came in and told him I arrowed a nice buck and he lit up and started congratulating me. He then got sad and said that he would love to go hunting with his grandpa but now that he was 14, he couldnt go because he did not have a hunting license, and that noone would take him because they were afraid what he would do with a gun in his hands....they had a right to be hesistant.

Finally I called and talked with his grandmother, then I called VDGIF and found a hunters education class about 20 minutes from this kids house and explained to them about this kid, and what to expect if he came to the classes. His grandmother sucked it up and drove him to 4, 4 hour classes over a couple of weeks and this kid got his hunting license. After Johnny got his hunters safety course certificate he brought it in after he got off the bus and showed me...he didn't act happy, but then I got a big smile on my face and said I am proud of you buddy....he lit up! I went and laminated his hunting certificate for him and told him to keep it in a safe place. The kids behavior started to improve tremendously over the next couple of months....then I moved to my current job, leaving him behind.

Long story short, I saw him and his grandpa in 7-11 this morning, but I didn't say anything to him so as to not risk any embarassment. But you could see his old blue collar grandpa hugging him and buying him coffee and donuts as they were getting ready to go to work as the kids in the county have off of school this week.

Man I can tell you I don't get too emotional most of the time, but I just felt really good for that kid and it brought tears to my eyes. Small things can make a big difference in a kids life.

That's a great story!

Respect, virginiashadow Thats worth reading twice

Yep, that's a good story bud

Great story! Great example of how one person got the ball rolling and made a life long positive impact on that kids life!

nice story. me and my family have been going through alot of issues with my stepdaughter. i am just praying that her story can end similar to that.

It's simply amazing what can happen when the love of God grabs hold of you. Very nicely done, and what a blessing to you, huh? That's really cool.

great story VS, great story!

Great story, and kudos for stepping up for that kid and helping him out when nobody else would. Who knows what would have happened if you didn't make that call to his grandmother.

Wow!! Thats incredible!! Your a real class act there Shadow and one heck of a guy, hats off to you!!