HyperDunks Changed A Life

I wanted to share a story about how your shoes changed the life of one of my students. I am an 8^th grade teacher in Vallejo, an economically struggling city of the East Bay Area.  I had a student who was a great athlete but he was an extremely poor student with many behavior problems. He came to my school because he was expelled from another school for hitting a teacher.  In addition to his continual behavior problems, this student carried a 13% in my science class.  One day, I noticed that he was playing basketball in his socks.  I asked him why he doesn’t play in basketball shoes to which he replied, “My mom’s trippin’, she wanted to buy a cell phone.” From that situation I gathered that his mom decided to buy herself a phone rather than buy her son some much needed shoes.  I called a friend whom I knew got a swoosh account discount and I asked if I could use it to buy shoes for this student.  He was so touched he said he would help buy them.  I remember pulling my struggling student out of his classroom to tell him this news.  I told him “Hey, I wanted to help get you some basketball shoes so you don’t have to play in your socks anymore. I talked to a friend of mine at Nike and we want to get you whatever pair of shoes you want.” This was a pretty hardened kid and I could see he was fighting tears.  His lip quivered as he said, “Thank you so much. This really means a lot to me.” He came into school the next day asking if he could make up for the work that he missed.  He got his grade up from a 13% to a 98% for the remainder of the school year. He also became a leader in the classroom as far as his behavior was concerned. Many teachers noticed the behavior change of this student and did not know why. I didn’t tell anybody at the school because I didn’t want to embarrass him, but I know it was a pair of hyperdunks from an observant teacher that made a huge difference.