Major Richard Smith of KCPD East Patrol (far right in photo) participated as a mentor at Pictures of Hope. He shares his experience here.
Walking
into Sheffield Place, my mind was wondering what the day would hold. This
was my first experience with “mentoring” and I have no artistic ability
whatsoever, and wondered if the young person assigned would quickly figure out
both in no time. I was lucky enough to meet several other mentors prior
to meeting with the kids. It was a great atmosphere, as everyone looked
happy and ready to tackle the day. A quick meeting with Linda Solomon
helped to give us mentors a picture of the goal, helping kids articulate their
hopes and dreams through a camera. Linda read some inspirational cards
that had been derived from this project, man the pressure was on now.
Marty Dahmer made a nice presentation, he let us all know that Chevrolet and
Cable Dahmer Chevrolet was sponsoring the event with sincerity and conviction,
traits that are rare in many charity events.
The
children were all given T-Shirts, only one kid said he would not put the shirt
on. Soon the mentors were called and the directed to the child they were
going to mentor. I approached Ken [not his real name] wondering if he was going to allow me
to talk to him. His head was down, he was the kid who would not put on
the T- shirt and said to someone that he didn’t want to, and he seemed less
than enthusiastic to have a cop in uniform next to him for the next couple of
hours. I talked with Ken and we worked through his hopes and dreams. I
quickly realized he was much like me and stuck to typical boys’ hopes and
dreams. After some “getting to know each other time” I asked Ken if he
would put on his T-shirt. Since he has a particular hairstyle I
demonstrated on how to roll the shirt up to the opening so he could just stick
his head through without messing up his hair. Trust was
built!
Our
picture experience was as expected. Ken learned how to use the camera as
a video recorder and soon he was without any power in the camera. Since
the camera was dead our time at the park was spent playing rather than
photographing. Ken didn’t seem to mind. Upon our return to
Sheffield, I introduced Ken to a bullet proof vest and a gas mask. I had
no idea that anyone could be so cool by possessing these items. Ken’s
first words were, can you take my picture. This was particularly
important because Ken’s number one hope or dream was to be SWAT guy.
For Ken the best picture of hope was not across town but right in front
of Sheffield, where Ken was the proudest Tactical Officer I had ever
seen. It was an awesome moment.
Becky [not her real name],
Ken’s mom told me that he had recently been to a surplus store and Ken had
wanted a gas mask that was displayed on a manikin. Wow, sometimes cops
are at the right place at the right time! Ken and I ate lunch together
and I promised him that he could use the mask for Halloween if he would
like. Ken said that would be great.
Ken
taught me on how to be a mentor and we accomplished the goal. We both had
a rewarding experience, one that will last lifetime.
