ful children aged 11-18. The kids were from Imperial
Heights housing project in Watts, California. It’s an effort
to teach them how to ride minibikes through a non-profit
organization called NYPUM.
Sargent Ronald Alberca and the other officers men-
tioned this program throughout the training day. Hear-
ing how enthusiastic they were I had to check it out. I
watched the kids both at the Davis Training Facility and
out in the real world.
National Youth Project Using Minibikes (MYPUM),
celebrating its 50th anniversary this year has reached
thousands of high risk kids throughout the United States.
It’s a place of refuge, a place for fun while encouraging
good habits that aspires the kids to graduate high school
and college, stay out of gang life, and provide choices that
all children deserve.
Coming from one of the largest and most dangerous
housing projects west of the Mississippi can’t be the eas-
iest neighbourhood to find oneself. These kids are doing
it with strength of purpose. I saw it in their faces, their
focus and their willingness to listen and learn. And what
is it about motorbikes that makes one grin ear to ear?
I was moved to goose bumps in 100 degree (38 Celsius)
weather observing how appreciative these kids are for
homemade chocolate chip cookies, barbecue made by
one of the officers and caring peers.
During lunch break Motor Officer Laura Gerritsen
asked the kids to describe what their “happy place” was as
we sat around the picnic table after the morning ride in
Hungry Valley RVRA in Gorman, California about an hour
north of downtown Los Angeles.
“My happy place was when I almost wiped out but
found my balance and kept going,” stated one of the kids
while munching his lunch with gusto, eyeing the distant
trails.
Most of them mentioned they were happy to achieve
smoother shifting, or handling the slippery sand trails,
making a hill climb trusting themselves to throttle with
more oomph.
Though the girls tended to be a little shy, they rode with
deftness propelling the boys to flaunt their stuff to the hilt
playfully competing against each other during skill prac-
tices. When one of them fell off it was a chance to help
their buddies up and brush them off. Some of these kids
have not had the opportunity to swim in the ocean or play
in the ancient dirt of State parks. To see their face’s light
up certainly conjured up my “happy place”.
This 4000-acre State park is located in Basin Ridge nes-
tled between the San Gabriel Fault and the San Andreas
Fault, which can be seen subtlety jutting out along roads
near Gorman. It smells of sagebrush and nearby fires. It
is magical and healing for humans to spend significant
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