Some 18th Birthday, Huh?

by Mark Horvath · 2010-07-27 07:00:00 UTC
Topics:

This new video comes from Mark's InvisiblePeople.tv 30-city, 11,000-mile, 75-day road trip, going on now.

This one wrecked me. I was crossing a street in Salt Lake City and saw Sergei. I asked him if he would like some socks. He responded, "I don't have any money," which was the first sign Sergei was new to the streets. I just didn't know how new.

This was Sergei's 18th birthday. It was also his first night homeless.

Many of you have asked for more details. I am sorry but I became emotional and didn't get much information. To me, just the look on his face was enough to feel his pain and get some understanding.

Many of you also asked how you can help. Please support Safe Place, Covenant House and similar organizations helping troubled youth. PLEASE!

I have worked with homeless youth before in Hollywood, but this was my first time with InvisiblePeople.tv. On this year's road trip I will be going out with a few homeless youth outreach teams. It's an important story that needs to be told. I just am not sure I am ready. Today my heart was broken.

Mark Horvath is an activist for the homeless. He vlogs at invisiblepeople.tv and blogs at hardlynormal.com. He was formerly homeless in Hollywood.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Belated Justice for Victims of NJ's Hair-Braiding Slavery Ring
NEXT STORY:
Is the NCAA Putting Student Athletes at Risk?

COMMENTS (2)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.