Single Father Of 4 Gets Help From Boys & Girls Club
By Libby Smith
DENVER (CBS4) - CBS4 is collecting new, unwrapped toys through our Care 4 Colorado campaign. The toys go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver where 90% of the members are living at or below the poverty line. For many of those families, the club is a life line.
LINK: Care 4 Colorado
Harold is a single father of four, 3 boys and a girl, the kids range in age from 13 to 8. All of them are members of the Boys and Girls Club.
"I used to go to the Boys Club myself when I was younger," Harold told CBS4.
He does restaurant work and often works into the evening. Harold has a hard time making ends meet for his family.
"Sometimes I don't have enough food," he said.
He knows his children can get a hot meal and snacks at the club. He also knows it's a better place for them than being home alone.
"There would be very little supervision. I don't want them to go on that wrong direction. Where, here there is just one direction. It's all positive, looking forward to the future," Harold explained.
Alex, Bradley, Dominic, and Amberly like it too. They get opportunities that they wouldn't get otherwise.
"More experiences. Like, I never played baseball or contact football. But here they gave me an opportunity to do that," said Alex, 13.
"There's this thing that we're doing this year called Play 60. And we play gogga ball and all kinds of stuff and football," said Bradley, 12.
"Here they have the technology room, the art room, the learning center where you can read books," said Dominic, 11.
LINK: Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver
When Christmas comes around, Harold's children get as excited as all the other children.
"Kind of happy, because I love toys," Amberly, 8, said about getting toys at Christmas time.
"It's been about 3-weeks now I've been hearing, 'Christmas is coming. It's coming,'" Harold said.
But Christmas doesn't fit well into Harold's budget.
"That's real tight…real tight. I've got to buy them clothes, can't really afford no toys or anything because clothes comes before toys," Harold said.
That's where the Boys & Girls Club will step in once again, making sure the holidays are bright.
"If it wasn't for the club, we would really be less fortunate than what we are," Harold said.
You can help Harold's family and others like his, by donating to our Care 4 Colorado Toy Drive. Drop a new, unwrapped toy into the donation bins set up at participating King Soopers stores, at the CBS4 studios at 1044 Lincoln Street, and the iHeart Radio studios at 4695 South Monaco Street.
The campaign runs through Christmas Eve.
Libby Smith is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. If you have a story you'd like to tell CBS4 about, call 303-863-TIPS (8477) or visit the News Tips section.
