Posted on 11/29/2008 9:42:10 AM PST by Deo volente
An 11-year-old boy's dying wish to feed the homeless is becoming a national movement. Brenden Foster isn't afraid to die. He says he just wants to make a difference, before his time comes.
Brenden can barely keep his eyes open as he watches Seattle's homeless being fed over the weekend.
"I don't need to worry until the time is come. So I don't have to think about it if I'm still alive now."
Brenden Foster is in his final days.
"I should be gone in a week or so."
Brenden was a normal kid, dreaming of becoming a marine photographer. Then, last year he was diagnosed with leukemia.
As he faces death, he is thinking of others. This homeless camp captured Brenden's heart.
"Well, I was getting back from one of my appointments and I saw this big thing full of homeless people and then I thought. I should just get them something."
But Brenden is too sick to leave his bed, so volunteers who heard about his story are gathering to feed the homeless in his honor.
"We're making two hundred sandwiches, half ham and cheese, half peanut butter and jelly. He said he didn't want to do all peanut butter and jelly because what if someone was allergic to peanut butter."
"They're probably starving, so they're my friends."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs2.com ...
Brenden passed away in his mother's arms the morning of November 21, 2008, one day after attending a food drive in his hometown.
My 13 year old cousin asked the teacher if he could start a program to help the homeless get JOBS. He was really interested in helping “people down on their luck”.
Of course, he was given after school detention for such anti-socialist blasphemy.
Yeah, but he was not advocating a govt. program. He wanted people to help directly. That is a bandwagon I can jump on!
I just admire his sense of compassion for those who are simply suffering, as he was. There’s such a sad shortage of that in this world right now.
And his deep wisdom about life in general, very unusual in one so young.
from another story:
BOTHELL, Wash. — The day I met Brenden Foster, I met an old soul in an 11 year old’s body.
“I should be gone in a week or so,” he said calmly.
When I asked him what he thought were the best things in life, Brenden said, “Just having one.”
I didn’t understand how this child, who was a year younger than my own son, could be so courageous facing death.
“It happens. It’s natural,” Brenden told me.
Three years ago, doctors diagnosed Brenden with leukemia. The boy who once rushed through homework so he could play outside found himself confined to a bed. But there was no confining his spirit.
“I had a great time. And until my time comes, I’m going to keep having a great time,” he said.
Brenden’s selfless dying wish was to help the homeless.
“They’re probably starving, so give’em a chance,” he said, “food and water.”
But Brenden was too ill to feed them on his own. So volunteers from Emerald City Lights Bike Ride passed out some 200 sandwiches to the homeless in Seattle.
Then Brenden’s last wish took on a life of its own.
A TV station in Los Angeles held a food drive. School kids in Ohio collected cans. People in Pensacola, Florida gathered goods.
And here in Western Washington, KOMO viewers from all over took part in the Stuff the Truck food drive in Brenden’s honor. Hundreds with generous hearts donated six and a half huge truck loads of groceries and more than $60,000 in cash to benefit Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline.
Brenden touched hearts all over the world. His wish came true, and he lived to see it.
“He had the joy of seeing all of the beautiful response to his last wish,” said his grandmother, Patricia McMorrow. “It gives him great peace and he knows that his life has meaning.”
“He’s left a legacy and he’s only 11,” said his mother, Wendy Foster. “He’s done more than most people dream of doing just by making a wish.”
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/34851839.html
I'll wager that at least 90% of the long term "homeless" in this country belong in one or more of the following groups:
1)The severely alcoholic...2)the severely drug addicted....3)chronic schizophrenics/severely brain damaged.
Those in category #3 belong in state hospitals.PERIOD! Regardless of what ACLU social worker types might chant.And if you talk to long time members of AA or Narcotics Anonymous they'll tell you that the very *last* thing you should do to a chronic drunk/addict is to give him/her food etc.The logic in that is that by doing so you dramatically lessens the chances that said drunk/addict will ever act to straighten him/herself out.
Yes,given that he was 11 and not even close to full maturity one could easily see his attitude as compassion.And one could easily admire him for his attitude.That's why I certainly won't "call him to task".If you're curious you might refer to my post #7 for what my attitude probably would have been had he been 41 instead of 11.
We all know about the etiology of homelessness in America. It’s been hashed and rehashed on this forum, and there are probably hundreds of threads on the subject.
But this is a story about a brave little boy who simply thought of others and their sufferings as he lay dying, and desired to do something to help them, at least for the time being. It’s a simple story, really, and needn’t be complicated by sociological and political posturing.
I live in a small village - our local homeless drunk lived off the streets and always had money for booze, right up to his death.
and always had money for booze, right up to his death.
God bless SSDI. The real reason Social security is tanking
As I said...yes,given his age one could easily admire this kid.In fact,I,too,think what he did was rather admirable.But this is a political BB and "homelessness" is most assuredly a political issue.So...as long as I differentiate the attitudes of members of different age groups (which I did)...my post was not at all out of line.
No that wasn't sarcasm;if you give a man a fish you feed him for one day,but if you teach him to fish you have fed him for all his days.
Subsidizing failure of the bum in the street or the CEO only guarantees more failures.
The "homeless" should not be permitted to hassle people for handouts,take over parks, or anything but arrested for vagrancy and put to some kind of productive work,such as sorting the recyclables out of the trash.The old "no visible means of support" and vagrancy statues might have offended some civil libertarians but America was a cleaner and safer place.
It’s becoming clear to me that I should have placed this thread on the General/Chat board.
It’s too bad that politics has to trump a simple story of love and courage, but go ahead and argue your case. You have that right.
(Yes,that *does* open up a whole 'nother can of worms I guess).
Yet somehow you managed to slip it into your post that was supposedly about how you wouldn't do it. That was almost clever. Emphasis on almost.
I doubt he got that....but you never know. He begged money from locals and many supported his boozing with cash....I am of the opinion that if you must help the homeless....buy them a sandwich and hand it to them. No cash ever.
What a precious child. We know the arms of our Lord Jesus now embrace him. May The Lord Bless and comfort this mother in her time of loss. Sure makes me really thankful for my 4 healthy, beautiful children. A story like this puts a little perspective on what really matters in life.
At my current age I most assuredly would *not* have done it...for reasons that I've previously touched upon.At the age of 11 I think it would have been pretty cool if I had done what he did.Yes,I took what could be said to have been a simple story of a young kid and widened it to include comments regarding an important social and political issue in this country.
I won't apologize for having done so until FR becomes a forum of social workers,ACORN "activists" or psychotherapists instead of a political forum.I often (but not always) ignore posts on FR that I see as out of line or stupid.All members of FR are free to do the same with my posts in my anything-but-humble opinion.
Thank you for getting the point!
The story is about a young boy’s courage and compassion, not about the etiology of homelessness and its political aspects.
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