My name is Kerry and I am writing this story hoping to inspire you guys into voting for me as Story of the Month! The ad revenues which the winner will collect sure could come in handy for this struggling student!

So I was always considered a geek in school, you know the guy that never gets picked for anything but always gets picked on? Well don’t worry, lets just say right from the beginning I don’t care if people pick on me, my philosophy always was that if they were picking on me, it would render them too busy to pick on someone else, maybe someone smaller, or weaker then me. I would rather take a little abuse if it meant someone else was being left alone.

Last fall one of the biggest bullies of the school, Ryan Urbes,  suffered a rather traumatic experience with his family. His house burned down, and his sister with it. It was so sad, they lost everything and apparently insurance would not cover the cost as it was decided the fire was caused by faulty wiring – hence their own negligence in not having the house annually inspected as per the small print in the insurance contract. Local shelters took in his mother and his other sister, but he and his dad ended up sleeping in the family vehicle for a couple of weeks with no clothing, and no home, and nothing to show for all the money the family had invested in the home. Ryan, at the age of 15, stopped coming to school and started working for cash at a local temp labor agency.

Now most people would think I would be happy about this bully not coming back to school, admittedly, it was a bit of a mental vacation for me and the rest of the geek squad. But I couldn’t understand how, in this day and age, in our country, a guy the same as I was had to stop attending school out of financial necessity! I mean the guy was living in a car … in Canada! So I sat and thought about it, talked to my parents about it, and together we came up with an idea to maybe help this family.

I had been running a small radio station out of the room over the garage for about two years. I was only on air Saturdays and Sundays on a station primarily listened to by high school and college kids, but it was something. I had some dedicated listeners, and some sponsors, and also some professional people from our community who I had spotlighted on my program before – they listened regularly too.

I ran a little segment every hour about this family on the Saturday show. Calls started flooding in, text messages, and emails. I was trying to get donations for them so that they could begin rebuilding their lives, Ryan could start sleeping in a real bed, and come back to school. Their family would be reunited, his mother and sister wouldn’t have to stay in the shelter anymore – and they could at least be somewhat comfortable after such a loss of the youngest sister and their family home.

On Sunday – I convinced Ryan’s Dad to come on air and speak to me for 30 minutes and take a couple of calls from listeners. He was a very proud man who insisted that he didn’t like to beg and didn’t want charity – but he was at a loss as to how to get his family back together since they lost the house and used what they had for savings to bury the youngest child who died. He was primarily speaking on air about finding extra work, better pay maybe, and possibly a room for him and his son to sleep in until he could save first and last months rent for an apartment for the whole family.

Just so happened, I had some very influential listeners, or a listener who was tied some way to some very important people in the country. A man, who is well known in my community for his wealth and his generosity as well – arranged a new town home for this family – and a private payment plan for Ryan’s dad to buy the town home and own it eventually. He paid to furnish the house for them, got each of them credit notes at local dept stores to get their clothing and footwear back in order – and even got them a line of credit donated from the local grocers so that they could get $100 worth of groceries weekly for a year.

I couldn’t believe the power of people – and the generosity too. I was amazed at how easy it all came together when a few people in the right positions decided to roll up their sleeves and pitch in what they could.

Ryan came back to school after Christmas break – and he wasn’t even close to being a bully to anyone anymore. While I am sure I am not his favorite person in the world still, me being a geek and all – he actually has come over to my place several weekends to check out the radio station gig I have going on, and has had some great input on advertising sales, sponsors, key interviews, and changes which would bring more listeners.

I cannot say all is well that ends well – because they will suffer the loss of the youngest sibling for life most likely – but it sure feels good to be able to be instrumental in some small way in helping this family to rebuild from the ashes.

(Don’t forget – if story inspires you -  vote vote vote – I am trying to get those ad revenues to put them to good use!)