21street
Darius D. Jones
I grew up in a low income neighborhood on NE 21st Street in Portland, Oregon. Fortunately, there was no better example of the old saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” than in my neighborhood. There were six of us boys in the neighborhood and not only did our parents work together to keep us on track, but a number of other neighbors played influential roles in our lives as well.
At age 10, I was invited to attend a holiday event organized through
the church our family attended. Other inner-city youth and I were
taken to K-Mart a couple hours prior to the opening of the store on
a Saturday morning before Christmas. We were each provided
breakfast, a photo with Santa, and a $20 gift certificate to pick
out a toy of our own. That Christmas was very special to me because
the real gift I received was the comfort in knowing there were
people who cared about my family even though we’ve never met.
My initial vision for the Foundation was to host a holiday event to
provide inner-city youth the same opportunity and life lesson I
experienced. After hosting the first event, I realized how much more
of an impact the Foundation could have if we continued to rally our
supporters around a good cause. That led to the development of our
Annual Legacy Grant.
I am now proud to say that thanks to our supporters, we’ve been able
to provide over 100 inner-city youth breakfast, a photo with Santa,
and a gift card to pick a gift of their own, for eight years now!