Welcome

Imagine with me please, dear readers, that you live in the poorest area of America, where the unemployment rate is 50% and the nearest "store" is 30-40 minutes away. Welcome to a world where people use ping-pong tables as floors, a world where you can make do on far to little. The high schools nearest to these areas have a 90% drop out rate. Would you accept this world? Would you allow YOUR children, YOUR friends, or YOUR loved ones attend a school were they have little chance of ever succeeding?

I wouldn't.

There's a real place like this out there- Welcome to Beverly, Kentucky, Clay County. It's a fourteen hour drive if you live in the Northern Parts of NJ, and it could be a different world for all anyone can see.

But it's REAL.

And there is a school in the corner of Bell, Clay and Leslie County that is CHANGING the lives of every single student, staff member and member of the community. This is the Red Bird Mission School. The RBMS graduates about 25 seniors a year and anywhere between 75-80% go on to higher education, and 60% of those students graduate college. In an area where the local high school has a drop-out rate of 90% and their elementary schools are in the bottom 3, that is TRULY a miracle.

I was just down working at a work camp that Red Bird Mission also runs, and while we were there on Monday, RBMS was NOT going to open for the 2010-2011 school year. They were going to suspend classes for the foreseeable future. The class of 2011 wasn't going to be able to graduate on time, most of them were actually planning on getting their GED as compared to having to spend a year in public school.

Luckily, on Thursday, it was annouced that school would reopen, but many changes would be made, and instead of running on a 1.5 million dollar budget, they would be running on a 8oo,ooo dollar budget. That means combining classes and cutting back on EVERYTHING.

This blog is about making a difference in the lives of these people, it's about standing up to the intolerance of letting children go without a proper education. Stay with me, and your hearts will be moved.

This is the Real World friends.