Joshua's Gift

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Joshua's Gift

powerofonejosh Young Role Model's Service Inspires Others

by Ken Rodriguez

In the West Side neighborhood where 15-year-old Joshua Alvarado lives, some people make their mark with a gun. Joshua makes his with a pen.

It is not uncommon for police in ZIP code 78207 to find a body spattered with blood. It is not uncommon for residents to see Joshua rewriting the rules of the hood.

Joshua picks up trash, removes graffiti and feeds the homeless. He tutors peers at the Boys and Girls Club down the street. He helps his polio-stricken grandfather into a wheelchair and accompanies him on important errands.

As a freshman at Fox Tech High School, Joshua makes As and Bs, plays first base on the varsity baseball team and writes poetry. After school, he goes home and cleans the room of his grandfather, Mario Alvarado. Then he composes award-winning essays.

One piece he wrote for the Boys and Girls Club earned him a $500 scholarship. Another won a prize that made his mother weep: an all-expense paid, five-night stay at the Hotel Contessa. The prize getaway isn’t far away -- it’s right downtown on the S.A. River Walk -- but the proximity to home doesn’t diminish the excitement.

As Joshua’s mother, Sabrina Hernandez, puts it, "We’ve never had a family vacation."

Sabrina, 32, scrapes by with occasional odd jobs and the money Joshua's stepfather earns as a mason. There’s just enough to keep everyone -- three adults and three children -- clothed and fed. But there’s not enough for health insurance.

Vacation? Until Joshua’s essay placed first in a statewide competition, a getaway seemed as likely as peace in the community. Late last year, ZIP code 78207 led the city in violent crimes, according to one news report. That was no anomaly. In 2003, police data showed the area led San Antonio in homicides. Too often, residents awake to drive-by shootings and sirens, to crime scene tape and tears.

The lawlessness and poverty of the ’hood seep into Joshua’s prose. In a contest that required entrants to explain why their family deserved a vacation, he wrote: "I live in the West Side of San Antonio in the 78207 zip code ... the highest crime area in San Antonio. Things have been very tough for us growing up. My real dad left when I was one year old ... my mother has had to raise all three of us kids mostly by herself."

Nice intro. It gets better. "I have a lot of responsibilities at my house," he writes. "I help take care of my grandfather and get him things that he needs. I often go with him to his doctor's appointments and help him get in and out of the car so he doesn't have to struggle with that. I also help him in the morning taking his medications and helping him get in the shower. I also help prepare his food and help do his laundry. I don't mind doing these things because I love my grandfather and I enjoy talking with him while I'm helping him."

Mario, 58, appreciates Joshua's hand. "I’m so proud of him," Mario says, and the pride extends to his grandson’s humility.

When Joshua learned his essay had won, the news overwhelmed him. "I couldn’t believe it," he says.

Bill Felty, director of the Boys and Girls Club on Perez Street, says Joshua logged 271 hours of service last year. "I've got some high school juniors," Bill says, "who look up to him because of his maturity."

Then there's Zach Nava, a 19-year-old student at Palo Alto College and staff volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club who often plays hoops with Joshua. "He inspires me," Zach says. "We could be losing, 98-8, and he'll bring the team together and keep us going."

In such a short time, Joshua has touched many. Students who need tutoring. Peers who need a role model. Neighbors who need trash collected. The homeless who need food. A grandfather who needs so much help.

Sitting beside her son at the Boys and Girls Club one Friday afternoon, Sabrina begins to tear up. She recalls becoming pregnant with Joshua as an unwed 16-year-old in Hondo. She remembers driving with her father to a clinic to abort the baby. She remembers passing the clinic so many times before, but on the day she went looking for it, "We couldn't find it."

Joshua was born one month premature, weighing five pounds, 10 ounces. "I tell him," Sabrina says, "that God put him here for a reason."

Sabrina's son envisions a future in law: a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Many would be eager to tell that story. But no one could write it like Joshua.