On Saturday, February 1, the La Porte community came out during the winter storms to support CHOICES at a prime rib dinner at the Best Western on Pine Lake Ave.
CHOICES is a non-profit organization founded and run by Gerald Hartnett out of the city of La Porte. Through CHOICES, Hartnett helps at-risk children and teens in his community. For the past nine years, Hartnett has been bringing in athletes to various schools around the community to put on a show for the kids, whether it’s bending a steel bar into a U shape or rolling a frying pan into a burrito, finally finishing the show with a motivational speech. Each athlete brought into these schools is an athlete that has been forced into early retirement due to drug use. These athletes come into the schools and share their stories with the students in hopes that it will keep them from making the same mistakes. At the end of each presentation, the kids are given 3x5 notecards to write on, where they can say anything their hearts desire.
With the typical comments about how entertaining the show was, there also come a few hot-tickets. These cards are not handed in to Hartnett, however, but to the school staff. In one case, a member of school staff came across a certain hot-ticket and reported what she read to the police.
After an investigation, the child in question was removed from an abusive home and sent to a safer one. “That is the reason why I do this,” Hartnett said, tearing up as he read a message from the police department.
Recently, Hartnett has partnered with another program referred to as ALL RISE, a drug court option for teens and young adults who have become addicted to drugs. One of the more recent graduates of the ALL RISE program was a young woman by the name of Skylar who is now a clean mother of a happy, healthy child.
Among the guest speakers at the Prime Rib Dinner where former football player Levar Fisher, La Porte County Magistrate Greta Friedman, and a recent CHOICES and ALL RISE graduate, Skylar. Friedman briefly spoke of her experiences as Magistrate and being involved in the ALL RISE program before inviting Skylar to the podium to speak. Skylar gave a tearful reading of a poem she wrote regarding her experiences while trying to get sober.
Finally, it was Levar Fisher’s turn at the podium, which he quickly pushed away so he could move around the stage more freely. Bouncing around the stage, he told many stories about his life pre-NFL and post-NFL – stories about friends who died and his journeys to the NFL. Each and every story he told revolved around the choices a person makes. His friends made choices that put their lives and the lives of everyone around them in danger. He made the choice not to go, to stand against what the crowd around him was doing and think about what choice was best for him. “Everything you do, everything that happens to you, is a choice. That’s what it all boils down to – the choices you make,” Fisher stressed as he walked across the front of the stage.
The crowd sat silently, entranced as each person had their time on stage, listening intently to the important messages they had.
Now beginning its tenth year, Hartnett wishes to continue CHOICES for years to come. “I made a lot of bad choices when I was younger, got into a lot of trouble, and if I can help even one child to not make those mistakes, then I’ve succeeded. This is my way of helping kids that need it the most. I hope I can continue helping until the day I die, I feel like this is what I am supposed to do.”