For a few years one of my co-workers up North has been cultivating a relationship with someone at the New York Giants. Earlier this year, the Giants drafted the #1 draft pick, Saquon Barkley, to join their team. This young man is 21 years old, a Penn State grad, and received a $30 million dollar contract. And, as I've been told, once he joined the Giants, he was encouraged to choose a charity to support. My co-worker's contact considered Covenant House and presented us to Saquon. The rest has been history.
Saquon decided that he would give Covenant House 4 ticket to every home game of the season. Chiefly these would benefit our Newark site, a few miles from The Meadowlands, but early fall Atlantic City was told the wealth was spread and we could bring 3 youth to the game. No one else amongst our leadership team felt a strong urge to go so the lot fell to me. Of all the dates available, I choose Sunday, December 2nd, praying it would not be cold.
As the date approached I got a bit cranky about the whole thing. I knew it would be a long day. I could think of 10 other things I'd rather do on a Sunday leading up to the holidays. And it was football=run around, fall down, 10 commercials. Repeat. Repeat, Repeat. (sigh) But someone had to do it.
The week of the trip I was "Bah Humbugging" about Christmas and various things. I learned who the 3 kids were who I would be taking and I stopped by the shelter to give them some info for the trip. 2 of the 3 were there (kids I knew, thankfully) and before I gave them a rundown of what Sunday would look like, one young man declared, "The Giants are my team! That Saquon Barkley is my favorite player!" and his face broke out in a huge smile. I looked at him: "You know you'll get to meet him, right?" Eyes as wide as the moon. "WHAT!?" I explained the situation with us being his charity of choice and that this trip wasn't just to a football game--there would be all kinds of "perks". The two kids exploded. "We get to WHAT!?" "Are you SERIOUS!?" You would have thought I told them they won the lottery...when, in a small way, they kinda did.
Driving home it occurred to me how selfish I was being about not wanting to go on this trip. Here were 3 kids who were homeless and would be homeless for the holidays (even worse) and I was fussing over taking them to a once in a lifetime experience. THAT thought humbled me. I felt that "nudge" from the Spirit and shifted my thinking. Years later, when these 3 kids looked back on their lives, their time at Covenant House would hopefully be just a small "blip" on their timeline, albeit a sad one. BUT, this trip, this experience, could be the one major bright spot they remembered. I was willing to do whatever I could to make it awesome.
I picked them up at 8:45am. All 3 (2 males, 1 female) were ready to go. I purposely played Christmas music on the radio to try and instill some holiday cheer but all 3 went to sleep. It was drizzling and I found it hard to drive. Yet onward up the Parkway we went.
We arrived about 10 minutes before the gate opened. We pulled into our "preferred parking" spot, just a few steps from the main gate (Perk #1). I lugged the bag of umbrellas and ponchos and we set out. Once arrived at the gate, security told me the bag was out and my purse was too big. Back to the van I went to try and stuff whatever I thought was needed for the next 5 hours into whatever pocket I had in my coat. Sheesh!
First order of business, get on the field! (Perk #2). Yes, we had pre-game field passes. We donned our coveted green badges and ventured out. Immediately, one kid said, "There he is! There's Saquon!" We mixed around other folks, watched the teams warm up, and met the Giant's contact who made this all possible.
ME...at a professional football game!? 
It was cold, it was wet, but here we were! We hung out on the field for a while until the kids said they were hungry. We left to go find food but then my cell phone rang and it was Saquon Barkely's MOTHER!? She asked if we could come back to the field (Um, YES!?) So back we went.
We hung with the family for about a half hour (Perk #3) I took a selfie with his mom. Saquon was dancing on the field to some song that was playing and his sister was mimicking his moves on the sidelines. The kids were incredulous.
When field time was over, we finally went to get some food. I'd been advised to bring $100 petty cash. I brought $120. I told the kids to get whatever they wanted, it was their special day. Everything THEY ordered came up to $97. I got a small Diet Pepsi. Enjoy. (Perk #4)
Our seat were pretty awesome (Perk #5). During the second quarter, Saquon's mom suddenly appeared and gave each kid a new football and said, "Bring these down after the game and he'll sign them", and then disappeared. The kids went nuts. The 4 guys sitting beside us, 3 of whom had Barkley jerseys on, looked at me, like, "What was that?" I explained the situation and they were floored.
I had told the kids I only had a few rules for the day: Have fun, don't drink beer, and remember where our seats are. I didn't want to be babysitting them every time they wanted to walk around or go out for a smoke, or whatever. So "do what you want" they did. (Ms. Jen Perk)
GRANTED, for not being a sports person, I was a Giants fan that day. I got into the game, mostly because I was there and to help the kids have a better experience.
And they totally did. I sent pictures to staff throughout the game. When it went into overtime one of my supervisors sent an,,"I'm sorry", text because they knew I went to bed at, like, 7pm, and an overtime would prolong the game. "No worries", I responded in truth. Because the kids were having a blast.
When the game was over Saquon's mom and the Giant's contact met us to go down to the locker room area. We were sequestered in an adjacent room and told it would be about 30 minutes until Saquon came out. It ended up being more like an hour but who was watching the clock!?
This young man, this elite athlete with a $30 million dollar contract is the same age as some of the kids we serve (21!? A baby!?) . Yet he took the time to give them the experience of a lifetime, sign their footballs, tickets, field passes, and talk to each of them. (Perk #6) He also told them that once the season was over, he was inviting every kid that had gone to the games to NYC for dinner with him, something I'd known about ahead of time that might be offered (Perk #7)
We left after 6:15pm so traffic was light. The kids were hungry again (!?) so we stopped at a rest stop outside of Newark. "Get whatever you want", I told them. (Perk #8) $50 later for just the 3 of them (Burger King and Starbucks), with full bellies we headed down the Parkway towards the shelter. One of the kids was cradling his signed football, the one who'd said the Giants were "his team" and Saquon his favorite player. He was being quiet. Finally he spoke up and said to me, "I'm going to give this football to my little brother for Christmas". I was stunned. To "give up" such a gift? "He's going to be so excited when he gets this!", he exclaimed. Wow...just...wow. Some of our kids, often at their lowest times, can still think about others. Wow...
I dropped the kids off and headed home. It had been over a 12 hour day so I was tired but in great spirits because I believed that the goal in my mind had been accomplished--the kids experienced a "once in a lifetime" day, and, in the continuum of homelessness, hopefully, it had added a bright spot to their lives.
Although I was tired I was thankful for the shift in attitude a few days prior to this day. "Ms. Jen" was still able to help make a memory, give some room, have fun, help facilitate, and frankly, meet a #1 draft pick to the NFL! A "once in a lifetime" experience for me as well...and for one I am thankful to the Lord for helping to orchestrate and provide. ,
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