Carnival with the Second Mile by Nick Carboni

A few Sundays ago we worked with the Second Mile to help them go out with a bang by throwing a carnival for the kids. Some of us APO brothers got paired up with some of the kids as well and I was lucky enough to be paired up with a 6 year old named Ethan. I know that a lot of bad stories have come up because of the horrific actions that Jerry Sandusky committed with the kids within the organization but that organization is the most well run organization I have ever seen. The people working the carnival were the nicest and the most generous people I have ever met. While walking around and helping Ethan throw tennis balls at milk jugs and toss bean bags at a corn hole target I realized that after this even they were closing their doors and these kids won't have these exciting weekends to look forward to anymore. They won't have escape from their lives to enjoy a day with us college kids. They won't have the Second Mile anymore. While the Second Mile has come under scrutiny over the past 15 months for the actions of one man, not many have looked at it from the kids perspectives. Without this organization many of these kids are going to be at risk still and they will not get to have the same luxuries many of us have been known to enjoy. I miss Ethan and I'm afraid without the Second Mile I will not get the chance to see him again. But I know that there will be another organization that will take these kids in and hopefully they will get more events like these.