A nine-year-old boy named Three (profiled in the May 17 feature Motel Hell) thought that he had forever escaped the transient life of the shady East Colfax motels. He’d lived with his mother and little sister in the Dunes, the Sands, and the Kings motel over a good span of his short life. With each homeless voucher that ran out, the family wound up in a different dive, or sometimes just a different room.
Earlier this year, Three’s family threw away many of their possessions to rid themselves of the bed bugs and made the move from the motel slums into a real home.
But an out-of-state job that Three’s mother’s boyfriend was waiting on never came through, and they’ve since found themselves back at another East Colfax motel.
Although the move is temporary, or at least that’s how it always seems, the honor that Three received from Colfax Community Network on Friday will last his whole life.
“Those being honored today, they may not have a permanent address, but each one has a parent who loves them dearly,” CCN founder Maggie Tidwell told a crowd of a few hundred at a luncheon celebrating the organization’s ninth year. “So let us all celebrate these great kids and the families that created them.”
Three and six other motel kids who frequent CCN’s afterschool and summer programs were honored for their character.
“There’s no place like home,” the kids chanted in sync. “There’s no place like CCN.” -- Luke Turf