11-Year-Old Forgets Own Struggles To Focus On Friends
DENVER (CBS4) - For many children the Boys & Girls Clubs is a second home. It provides a safe place after school to focus on homework and learn new activities.
CBS4's Care 4 Colorado campaign is making sure every child at the Boys & Girls Clubs gets a toy this Christmas. That includes Taylor, who forgets his own struggles to focus on his friends.
Taylor, 11, loves to play basketball -- he spends hours shooting hoops.
"It's not hard because I've been practicing a lot, and I'm very good at it," Taylor said.
Taylor is determined to play ball, despite cerebral palsy, which left one hand immobile and also impacts one of his legs.
"I don't want to like be this way but I'm happy that I can walk and that I have two arms," he said.
Taylor says what hurts the most is when kids see his disability and don't want to play with him.
"They think I can't shoot and I'm poor at it because I have my arm and my left leg."
Boys & Girls Club President John Arigoni stopped by CBS4 studios to talk about the toy drive. Watch his interview in the video below:
At the Boys & Girls Clubs Taylor plays basketball and proves that he can hang with the best of them.
"To be able to use that determination and to feel like he fits in and is not an outcast is just really amazing," Taylor's mother Karen Fields said.
Taylor knows what it feels like to get left out and he wants to make sure that all his friends at the Boys & Girls Clubs get included this holiday season.
"So they can feel happier and think they're not just left out," Taylor said.
"There are so many kids that you don't even realize, that don't have anything, and won't be getting anything," Fields said. "It just means so much to them. It makes them feel that they are special."
The toy collection day is on Friday. It's a chance to make sure every child at the clubs has a toy this Christmas. The CBS4 team will be collecting toys from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the King Soopers at Leetsdale and Cherry. The hope is to get 12,000 toys for kids ages 6-18. Those who can't make it on Friday can donate online through a link in the Care 4 Colorado Toy Drive section.
