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“The minute in the most
important moment of my life,” he said, was when he realized
how important “youth, education and the future of our youth”
are.
Now a Chicago resident,
Kadens said he came back to Toledo with the intention of
bringing on board other similarly privileged individuals and
organizations to build an entity that would help vast sums
of Toledo-area high school students but had made little
progress in getting others to share his vision.
So he struck out on his
own and started in the logical place – an inner-city school,
plagued with poverty and with a primarily African-American
student body; a school his wife’s own grandfather had
attended decades earlier.
For those high school
students and their parents in the audience, the assembly was
a complete mystery. Even the Scott teachers were not
informed what Kadens would be announcing during the
assembly.
Senior Amil Bates and his
parents, Angela McNeal and Ronald Bates, attended the
assembly because, as Angela said later, she was called so
many times by the school about how important the event would
be. “They consistently called to remind me not to miss it,”
she said.
The preceding months had
been filled with concern and worry about finances for Amil
and his parents. “My son is very smart,” said Angela of Amil,
who carries a 4.4 grade point average and plans on becoming
an engineer. “We really were working hard on his finances,”
she said of her family’s struggle to find a solution for a
bright kid who has been trying to decide which of five
colleges to attend without having the access to the
necessary funds.
For Amil, as with so many
of the students present that day, the assembly seemed to be
a distraction from everyday tasks and activities. “I don’t
know why we’re here,” he told his parents. “What’s the big
deal?”
It was a very big deal, as
it turned out – as Kadens, reaching the climax of his
speech, told Amil and Angela and Ronald and the other 107
seniors and their parents: “Tuition, room and board and fees
will be paid for, and you will go to college for free!”
The room exploded.
Slouching students came to
life gasping in disbelief, astonished at the sudden change
in their futures and their fortunes.
Parents were on their
feet, crying, each seeking someone to hug.
Some students, like Amil,
were too stunned to move, but as he sat there, head in his
hands, he knew how big a deal it was. It was the best day of
his life, he said later.
Kadens, however, was not
quite finished. He told his weeping, laughing, dancing
audience after they calmed down a bit: “So too, can one of
your parents go to college or trade school,” bringing the
excitement in the room to another fever pitch.
Angela McNeal has been
slowly collecting college credits over the years. She has
not yet had time to process what it will mean to her to
complete her degree because she is still focused on the
impact on Amil.
And for Kadens, this is
the start, he hopes, of a broad effort to bring education to
all who want it. He has formed HOPE Toledo (Helping Our
Population Educate) to continue the work. “We want to do
more, our work is not done,” he said. “Thank you for the
opportunity to use my responsibility in this life.”
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