Geri Berholz

May 15th 2008

I went out on my third shoot this morning and now back at the office (and trying to wrap my head around the Get Involved web site for a few minutes…) I’m still thinking about the experience I had this morning with Geri Berholz.

A little background: Geri is the founder of Future Possibilities for Kids, an organization that helps kids (age 8-12) who might be floundering a little on the fringes in their schools or neighbourhoods, bringing them into the fold, matching them up with a mentor, who then works with them to identify and then achieve a neighbourhood improvement project.
Sound simple? (Does it? Actually, maybe it’s just “easy to say”, because how simple could it possibly be for an 8 year old to organize an ambitious project, make it happen, follow it through, write a report, then present the results? Yikes.)

Okay, so it isn’t simple, but it is clear how great such an organization could be if it worked… and guess what? It does. Boy does it ever.

I went in to Geri’s office in Richmond Hill (after shooting Future Possibilities “Power of Possibilities” celebration night a couple of weeks ago: hundreds of kids, family members, parents, kid coaches and other supporters singing, dancing, cheering… it was wild) and there she was, with the bluest eyes and the warmest smile, charming the cameraman and sound guy (another 2 Matt’s of course) and bringing me to tears more than once. The love she has for the children and coaches and the commitment she has to the idea (even though it had to operate off her kitchen table for the first several years… no salary, no benefits… just expenses – it was another of those: “They said it couldn’t be done” type stories) shines from her. And I find myself getting passionate about this organization, wondering if I could shoehorn some time into volunteering with Future Possibilities, alongside my commitment to Sick Kids (eek – when will I sleep?!) because I’m seeing how early success for these children translates into self-esteem, strength of character and perhaps even more importantly, a sense you can truly feel in each of these children that they matter… that they belong.. that they themselves are deeply important.

And what’s better than that?