DALLAS — No matter what sport they play, every boy wants a coach in his corner.
That much was clear watching brothers Lincoln and Logan Davis shoot together in Dallas, with their mentors by their side.
"If you’re sad, you can tell them anything you’re going through," Logan told WFAA.
"I wouldn’t have a mentor if I didn’t join forerunner."
The Davis brothers met their mentors at Forerunner, a Lake Highlands nonprofit that pairs mentors with young boys growing up without father figures at home. The dads, according to Forerunner, could be absent for all different reasons, like death, divorce or desertion.
Forerunner currently mentors more than 100 boys, taking them to school, helping them with homework, taking them camping and much more. But this summer, executive director Stephen Murray told WFAA his organization's been without many of the resources it relies on to do that.
In late July, Murray told WFAA, thieves broke into the Forerunner office and stole more than $30,000 worth of computers, iPads and camera equipment.
And in mid-June, he said, thieves tried to hot wire the vans the group uses to take the boys to school and camp. That cost about $11,000.
"We feel in such a visceral way that things have been stolen from our boys, and this just added to the list," Murray said. "If you think about the experiences you have with your father, and missing out on those things, there’s a weight and a burden and a limp in every one of their hearts. And to see the organization that’s trying to fill that gap in their lives, being attacked... I know it means something to them, probably more so than us."
Murray said the organization needs financial help, but hopes this story encourages people to sign up to mentor.
"We need mentors more than we need MacBooks," he said. "We need a community rallying around these boys seeing the talent God’s placed in them innately."
Speaking of whoever took the supplies, Logan said, "I hope they come back and give the stuff back because these are really nice people they took from."