We Are Called to Rise

Roberta has lived in Las Vegas her whole life and knows the ins and outs of the desert city. She especially knows where homeless teens escape to find whatever comfort they can. Roberta is a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate involved in the Las Vegas Homeless Youth project. Some mornings, she parks in a certain lot and waits for teens to climb down from a particular roof in town, greeting them with McDonald’s. She recalls a particular boy, Dawan. She met Dawan one afternoon while walking her dog with her husband, Marty. She noticed subtle indications of a person living in the bushes near the path. Concerned for the person’s well-being, she called out but didn’t hear any response. She persisted, but no one emerged. She was so blinded by her concern that she told her husband to keep walking and that she’d catch up to him.

Finally, a “skinny, scratched, sunburned adolescent” who resembled “a scrawny savage” (67) crawled out with a knife, and she offered him water. The boy looked afraid, but she wanted to help, so she called her husband back to offer the boy a sandwich. Roberta would later realize that this boy had evaded the juvenile system many times and that this was a rare opportunity to help him.