On Giving…

We can’t express how important your support of GLBBS is to the future of the School and our students.  Likewise, while there are many things we could write about current first-year student Sam Hill, we think his mother’s words are more heartfelt and eloquent than anything we could author.  Following is her recent letter, edited, and printed with her permission:

My son, Sam Hill, has recently been able to begin receiving instruction at your school through a generous scholarship.  As his Mom, I wanted to tell you of the enormous impact you have made in his life.  I want whomever reads this to have a bigger picture of the young man that attends your school.

Many people have had it worse than Sam, but many more have not.  We went briefly into a shelter when Sam was in middle school before we were able to be placed in the apartment where we currently live.  Sam’s father was absent from his life in those following years and I know he felt the absence of a male influence in his life.  However, through all of this he played both football and basketball.  In school his grades were never A’s but he also never failed.  There were numerous opportuniites to go to parties, get drunk and get high, yet he never allowed himself to go down that road.

I was a single Mom going through school, working and being a caregiver for my eldest child.  Still, if I did not get up to go to church on a Sunday he would walk there himself.  He (on his own) volunteered to shovel, mow and do any work that needed to be done at the church.  He has worked summers and after school since he was 15 to pay for his extracurricular activities.

I guess what I am trying to say is that rather than allowing the negativity which surrounded him affect him, he strove to be better than his circumstance.  I never thought there would be an opportunity for him to recieve further education and we were both concerned that he would end up in a factory in our dead-end town.

Our prayers for a better life for him were answered by you.  There are not enough words to express my gratitude.  I want you to know that you are in this Mother’s prayers each morning and evening.  I could never be more proud of where he is, what he is learning and who he is learning it from.  Thank you for being the next step in his path toward a brighter future!

-Lilah Moore

Sam was the recipient of the Henry Clay Wisner Memorial Scholarship.  For more information on how you can support Great Lakes Boat Building School, please click here.