Transformation (The Floyd Taylor Story) - Part 2

 

 

This is a 3 part series detailing the story of Floyd Taylor, a youth member of the
Forward South Bronx Coalition. 

 

by Cedric McClester 

There’s a saying that is apropos right here.  “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”  Eventually, Floyd was introduced to the then executive director of SFI, Mr. Jose Ferrer who took Floyd under his wing and introduced him to what he called “mirror therapy”.  Mirror therapy calls for an individual to do some serious introspection, as if looking in a mirror.  It also requires the individual to ask themselves questions, like where am I now, and where would I like to be, and what do I have to do to get there?  Floyd is a testament to the effectiveness of mirror therapy.  Since undergoing Mr. Ferrer’s mirror therapy, Floyd has grown leaps and bounds. He is highly regarded at SFI, where he is now employed as a summer youth worker and serves as an inspiration to other potential winners.

 

Thanks to the largesse of the Prevention Resource Center (PRC), Floyd was recently offered a unique opportunity.  He was given a scholarship to the recently concluded CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) 2012, 11^th Annual Mid-Year Training Institute, held in Nashville, Tennessee.  This year’s theme was, “Ticket To Community Change”  As originally scheduled, Floyd was to be accompanied by Cedric McClester, the SFI staffer that serves in the capacity as Convener/ Chairperson of the Forward South Bronx Coalition.  Due to his mother’s emergency surgery, which put her in the intensive care unit of the hospital, McClester had to cancel his travel plans.  This presented both the Forward South Bronx Coalition and the PRC with an interesting dilemma.  The question was, should Floyd attend the CADCA training institute unaccompanied, knowing he had never been to an event of that nature before, in addition to never having flown?   Where one might have expected Floyd to be crestfallen at the news that Mr. McClester would be unable to attend, Floyd remained upbeat about the prospect of still going.

Clearly, the mirror therapy worked.  Both Mr. Ferrer and Mr. McClester coached Floyd on travel arrangements and what to expect when he got there.  He was instructed that if he ran into any difficulty to contact either, day or night.  Floyd called when he was boarding the airplane and also upon his arrival.

That was the last either of them heard from Floyd until his return.

 

End of Part Two

About the Contributing Blogger

Cedric McClester is the Director of Community Relations for SFI (formerly Sports Foundation, Inc.). Sports Foundation Inc. is a social service organization that provides free counseling, sports, health and education programs and activities for today's youth. He is also the coordinator of the Forward South Bronx Coalition. The vision of the Forward South Bronx Coalition (FSBC) is to create a culture within the South Bronx that promotes healthy living, hopefulness, and connectedness within the community to instill a sense of present and future possibilities.