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Empower Change: Donate Your Car in Kansas
Changing Lives, One Car at a Time
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Changing Lives, One Car at a Time in Kansas
Welcome to Cars for Kids, the charity dedicated to creating a brighter future for children in need across the welcoming state of Kansas. Your unused vehicle can be a powerful tool for change, supporting vital local initiatives that directly impact Kansas's youth. By donating, you're not just parting with a car; you're becoming a driving force behind positive change.
Beating the Statistics and Having it All
LaPhadra
Houston Can! is a lot different than her very large school in Tulsa. She has really liked the small classes and one-on-one relationships with the teachers and advisors. She is also glad to not be in a school where there were fights and arguments among the students. She said she never sees that at Houston Can!
She is the oldest sibling and has six sisters and one brother. One of her sisters is enrolled at Houston Can! as well. La’Phadra graduated in June and said it is a big help that the Can! helped her catch up so quickly with her class credits and graduate on time. She can help her mother with her brother and sisters.
La’Phadra wants to enroll at Houston Community College (HCC) and study to be a police officer but is also interested in forensic science. Her plan is to transfer to a four-year university after HCC. Her favorite class was world geography.
La’Phadra got engaged at prom to her boyfriend who is also a student at Houston Can! Her boyfriend is enlisting in the service so they will be apart for several weeks when he leaves this summer for basic training. They both think it is a good idea to wait and get married after his basic training because they have never been apart and think they should see how this separation goes for each of them.
Olivia's Success Story
I dropped out for a while but finally enrolled in Austin Can! Academy. It was a big change to have smaller classes and uniform but when I am in the classroom the teachers actually teach! If you do not understand something, they take the time to explain things and encourage me to go to tutoring.
In the past, I never knew what I scored on TAKS but since I’ve been at Austin Can! my math score has increased a lot and my score has gone up 200 scale points. I never took my academics seriously in the past, but the staff helped me to believe in myself! I will be graduating this June and then will attend college.
BRENDEN'S STORY
My home life was a wreck. I never knew a time in my childhood that I didn’t see my mother drinking or having different men at my home after my parents divorced.
I was so young that I felt that I may have been the cause of the split.
Later, I was thrown out of my mother’s house when I was in the 6th grade. I felt horrible about leaving my younger sister behind, but I was just a child myself and went to live with my dad.
My father had to drop out of college to support me.
Overtime, anger issues began to plague my life. I would become frustrated which often times led to getting in trouble both at school and in the community. I was a stubborn student and did not have a true sense of purpose.
After only a month of being a freshman, I dropped out of school for a year. Somehow I found San Antonio Can High School. Later I would come to realize it must have been my fate to land at San Antonio Can, especially being that I can’t remember how I heard about it in the first place.
My first days at San Antonio Can were filled with anger and resentment towards life itself. I did not understand why we did Marquez Reading or FIE let alone why school was so important.
On my 18th birthday my birthday present to myself was to leave high school for good. So I did.
I spent the next year at home, playing video games, smoking marijuana, and not being productive. I wasn’t going to school and I wasn’t working. However, that being said, something good did come from this bad if you will.
During this time I started to become self-aware. I started to realize that I was fighting a battle with my alter ego.
See, part of me didn’t care if I finished school and didn’t see the point in graduating. Yet another part of me wanted to BE someone, wanted to DO something with my life. I wanted to accomplish things and have purpose in life.
After about one year of this, I decided the only way I was going to get there was by finishing high school. That was going to be the first step in my journey to success and living a life with real value and true purpose.
This year, I returned to San Antonio Can with hope, but couldn’t get past my bad behavior. Until Mr. Tribett, the principal, and Ms. Franklin, my advisor gave me an intervention. I was able to not only hear their side, but also take it into full consideration. I was able to reflect on this and better understand my own position in life and where I wanted to go.
Mr. Tribett was the only person that believed I could change. I thank him for giving me that chance.
The next school day the renaissance began, this rebirth was enlightening. To this day I am forever grateful. It didn’t take too long before the staff and faculty of San Antonio Can High School started to witness the change in me.
Since my return I’ve experienced things I never would have imagined. For example attending the Broadway Musical Jersey Boys, participating in Learning from Leaders, Job Shadow San Antonio, and becoming actively engaged in student activities.
Along with all the support the school provides, such as eye glasses, immunizations, mental health services, and a great college readiness program at no-cost to me, I know I will be ready for what’s next. I’ll be able to walk through the doors that lead to the next set of challenges and accomplishments in my life through education.
After graduating from San Antonio Can High School I plan on obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and returning to Texas Can Academies to teach. I believe that the mission and vision of our CEO, Richard Marquez and Chief of Schools, Dr. James Ponce, can reach even more students across our great state, and I’m proud to be a part of this movement.
DESTINY'S STORY
My story begins when my mom was 15-years-old. She was raped by my father and that is how I was conceived.
Soon after I was born my mom was diagnosed with postpartum depression.
When I was two weeks old I had trouble breathing and my mom found out I had a tumor in my throat. I had to have surgery to remove the tumor and then was sent home to recover. Not too long after I went home somehow when I was in my crib all my stiches in my neck ripped open. I am thankful my grandmother came to check in on my mother and I because when she did my mother was standing there watching me bleed out and not doing anything to stop it.
I believe my mother was so still so angry and resented me because I reminded her of her rape. My grandma ended up picking me up and holding my head to my body and getting me to the hospital in time.
This was my beginning.
When I was about 3-years-old my mom married my stepdad. They had my little sister and then my little brother.
From as early as I can remember my parents highly favored my siblings.
I remember one time we were back to school shopping at the flea market when I saw the coolest pair of high top Vans I had ever seen. They had checkers and so many bright colors. I had never seen shoes like that before. I picked them up and asked my stepdad if I could have them.
He looked me straight in my eyes and said no, yet he turned to my younger sister and said, “Would you like these shoes?”
It broke my heart so much because I could feel him using my excitement for the shoes against me. It was just another way to make me feel like I wasn’t as important as my brother and sister.
Drugs are another issue that plagues family for as long as I can remember. My mom’s pregnancy with my sister did not even stop her or my stepdad from consuming drugs day in and day out.
His drug of choice was heroin and my mother’s was meth.
The majority of my childhood was spent watching my parents do and sell drugs.
My stepdad became very violent and would beat on me and my mother on a regular basis.
I remember one time he threw my mother through our glass French doors. She landed on the back porch and in the process her two front teeth were knocked out. I saw all of this happen right in front of me. After her teeth were knocked out he would make fun of her all the time.
She became very depressed and tried killing herself in our bathroom. She locked the door and broke the mirror. She eventually let me in and I saw my mother bleeding from her wrists in our bathtub. Somehow my grandparents showed up and were able to get her help and she lived.
You might be thinking, ‘Where was Child Protective Services?”.
They were there actually. My family went through seven CPS cases while I was growing up.
It was basically hopeless though because my parents coached us on what to say to the CPS workers. They would threaten us with beatings if we didn’t say exactly what we were supposed to.
My parents also had us pee in their drug test cups so they wouldn’t be caught testing positive for drugs.
One time we were removed from our house and went to go live with my stepdad’s mother. She was mean herself and also resented me for not being her son’s child. Life with her was just about as difficult as life at home.
The violence between my mom and my stepdad came to a head one day when he showed up unexpectedly at our doorstep. He had been in jail and had gotten out and not told anyone.
He kidnapped my mother that day.
I called my grandparents and they came and got us kids and we went looking for them. Somehow, by the grace of God, we found them at an old motel on the Westside. My grandfather and uncle and the hotel manager broke down the door and we found my mother duct tapped to a chair. I remember the duct tape being so tight her skin was budging out. She was sweating and crying, but we couldn’t understand her because her mouth was duct tapped shut.
He was arrested and sent back to jail.
I wanted a better life, but things kept going downhill.
You see, all of this was happening while I was going to school or trying to go to school.
On the days I didn’t have to stay home and take care of my baby brother because my parents wouldn’t wake up, I would try attend school, but I always had to remember to cover up my bruises and be cautious to avoid questions from adults.
One day I ended up getting arrested and spend three weeks in juvenile detention. One day a school a girl who had been picking on me called me a bastard. See I didn’t know what that meant until a friend told me.
I became so angry. This girl knew my mother had been raped. I got into a physical fight with this girl and caused her to need a few stiches. I guess all my anger just came out that day because I had never been in a fight before.
I was later arrested and found guilty and sentenced to three weeks in a juvenile detention center. However, there was a good thing that came from this bad situation.
I told my entire story.
I told her everything, all the stories I just told you plus so many more I don’t have the time to tell today. This helped me get out of my parents’ house for good. This started the process of me being adopted by my grandparents.
In a way I am thankful for that experience because I was finally able to get help.
I went to two high schools before I found San Antonio CAN. I never felt like I fit it. When I was there I would miss my siblings and worry if they were okay. After the kidnapping incident my grandparents decided to legally adopt me.
I remember I was in class one time and shared with the class that I might be able to go to college since I was adopted I could get grants. The adult in the room asked me in front of the whole class, “Why are you being adopted? You/re parents don’t want you?”
It was like a punch in the gut.
Immediately after finding the Can Academies I didn’t feel lonely. For the first time, my teachers understood and helped me. They made me feel wanted. If it weren’t for them I don’t think I would be graduating. I finally found find the first place where I truly belonged.
My advisor Ms. Simmons and my English teacher Ms. Hatfield made me feel like they understood where I had been and that I was wanted.
If it weren’t for San Antonio CAN I don’t think I would be graduating from high school.
Now my life is different.
Although my mom will always be my mom and I can’t change the past, I can choose what I do moving forward.
My goals are to join the Army after high school and eventually earn a degree in education and come back to teach at the CAN. I want to help students like me find their purpose.
And as for me, I was adopted by my grandparents. My grandparents love me very much. I have a boyfriend who helped me get in my journey to get off meth and I found a great church that I consider a second home.
I am thankful for the Can, my grandparents, my boyfriend and my church. I am also thankful for those of you reading this today.
I found find the first place I felt I truly belonged, San Antonio Can.
I know now that I life of love, faith and hope to look forward to. Thank you for believing in me.