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| Kaine Horman and Jim Burns go for a ride |
We have been going from event to event this summer, and have had little time to catch our breath. With that being said, something wonderful happened on Saturday. We were asked by Pat and Nikki James to join them and the Kyron Horman Foundation at the Woodburn Drag Strip for the Truck Drags.
As we pulled up with the truck and trailer I got a glimpse of Nikki and Pat waving us in. We set up right next to them and their hopped up S10 pickup. We had met Pat and Nikki at the Hot Rod Hair car show in July and really hadn’t had much time to get to know them. As we set up Nikki and I went up to get “Hope” (our Monster display truck) signed in as she was going to come up to the starting line and the announcer was going to talk about Break the Chain and our mission during opening ceremonies.
In a room next to us, Kaine Horman was conducting an interview with Inside Edition about the disappearance of his son Kyron. As the interview concluded they came down to the booth and we got to meet all of them. Kaine is a terrific guy. Kaine's son Kyron was abducted 14 months ago. To date they have not found him. We got to visit with Kaine and the volunteers for most of the morning. The TV crew loved “Hope“ and took some footage of us talking with Kaine in front of the truck. Nikki and Pat our latest "Racing to Break the Chain" team members have a souped up S10 and it was all decked out with Kyrons pictures. Pat took Kaine for a ride down the track with the film crew in tow.
The film crew left and we were able to sit and have a wonderful conversation with Kaine. We are definitely going to be doing more events with the Kyron Horman Foundation, and are going to be adding a picture of Kyron to our monster truck and look forward to helping spread the word of his disappearance. Jim had the pleasure of taking Kaine for a ride.
Kaine had another event to go to, so we said our goodbyes.
I hadn’t really noticed the little boy sitting in a chair in the booth next to us. He is 11 and in the 6th grade. His name is Buddy. He came to our table with his mom and looked at all the t-shirts. They immediately settled on the Bullying t-shirt. Buddy has experienced bullying first hand and is really having a hard time. They shared his story with us. Nikki is Buddy's sister and she asked if Buddy could sit in “Hope”. Jim helped Buddy up into the truck and the look on Buddy's face was priceless! He was so excited! It became clear to me that Buddy needed to be with Jim when “Hope” rolled up to the starting line for the opening ceremonies. This little boy who has had so much trouble with self esteem was now the center of attention sitting in the passenger seat of the truck that would soon crush bullying at the Sublimity Harvest Festival in September. I learned a valuable lesson. Just when I think I have it all figured out, I realized again the purpose of Break the Chain. It is to reach people of all ages at ground level. It is listening to their stories and letting them know that they are each valuable. Buddy didn’t know that he was going to tell us his story that day, and I didn’t know that we were going to make one little boy feel important and special. I watched as his sister Nikki wept softly at the sight of her baby brother being lifted up emotionally and physically into the truck. His face became illuminated with the biggest grin I had ever seen.
Thank you Buddy for reminding me why we do what we do, and that small acts of kindness can make a BIG difference.
