One day, we were at our neighbour’s house and he pulls out this old, red tandem bike. You know, the one for two people. Curious, we ask him about it. He says, “What if I were to tell you that this bike was owned by a blind man?" He then went on to tell us that this man was in the business field and travelled quite a lot. He had wanted a way to stay active so he bought a few tandem bikes in different places he worked. Before he had lost his vision, he got to know the areas of these locations quite well. So he would ask a good friend to sit on the front of the bike and pedal the right way while he directed from the bike.
To hope is like blindly riding a bike. It’s knowing what direction you want to go or the destination you want to end up at, even though you can’t see how you are getting there. Hope is an action every bit as much as a feeling; hope is a verb.
Now, there’s a second part to this and that has to do with the driver. You see, the job of the driver was to first listen, then to act as the blind man’s eyes while he told them how to see. We googled this and the person who sits on the front of a tandem bike is called the pilot. It’s the pilots job to communicate the, ‘happenings’ if you will, to the person in the back. The word pilot actually comes from a Greek word that that means ‘oar’ as in something that steers. The job of the driver, or the pilot, was to steer.
Back2School project helps to supply young students experiencing hardship with all the stationery they need for each new school year. When Hope is a Verb somewhat presented itself, we knew that it would be a way to show our community that Back2School Project isn’t just about providing the tangible: it’s about providing hope. It’s about being the pilot in the front of the tandem bike and steering the students in the right way while listening to each and every one of their stories. Hope is a Verb and Back2School Project is about empowering them to believe that they are made for great things.
So hope is a feeling. Hope is an action. Hope is a verb.
