I was given an awesome opportunity on Saturday the fourth.  Horizon Academy held a garage sale/bake sale/raffle fund raiser to benefit the Toys for Tots and No to Abuse organizations, and I was allowed to participate in it.

My name is Dave S., I am sixteen years old, and I have been attending Horizon for about a year.  It has taken time and work to grow from the selfish person that I was when I first came to the school, to get to the point where I am able to appreciate that we were able to raise the amount of money we did for those less fortunate.  As the day progressed, I saw people who were not all that well off themselves, bid on a pie for thirty-five dollars.  Just a regular apple pie, one that I’m sure they would have had no problem going home to make themselves for about thirty dollars less.  Out of the genuine kindness of their hears, these folks were putting money on the table for those who need it the most.

Of course the day was a blast, and there were a lot of things that  made it that way, but I don’t think anyone lost sight of what the day was really about.  I’ve seen that society today tends to encourage a self-centered behavior I’m sure we’re all familiar with, one centered around what we don’t have, and what we can get more of, but the people who showed up here last week really moved me.  They were focused on how much they could give, not how much they could get.  I’m getting closer to graduating, and things like this has put thoughts in my head, ideas that I could use to make a difference in this world.  While I thought starting off the day, that I was going to be the one giving the gift, I received one instead.  Not one of materialistic value, but one that lasts much longer and is much more powerful.

My message to everyone who reads this is regardless of what you may have to your name, you always, have something to offer the world, as the people of Amargosa Valley showed me today.

DAVE S.

GRADUATED FEBRUARY 2007

HORIZON ACADEMY