“I remember years ago … when the kids were in elementary school, Garfield would get up, take them to school, take them to ball games, fishing tournaments. It was always about the kids,” Tate said. “When I came back home, it amazed me to see he was still doing this.”
Big Garfield - given name Garfield Hawk III - is now up to something new. He coined a term, “Un-included,” secured a Web domain, and printed bright T-shirts that say “I want to be Un-included when it comes to drugs, alcohol, teen pregnancy and gang violence.”
“The block is raising the kids. A lot of parents are just turning the kids loose, and where the big ones go, the little ones follow. We got to start with the little ones,” Hawk said. “Everybody says they’re not old enough to touch these subjects yet. By the time they get 12 and 13, they’ve learned it on the streets.”
Hawk’s 18-year-old stepdaughter, Bethanie Naylor, built a Web site that can be found by searching with the keyword “un-included.” Using computer skills she learned at Temple High School, Ms. Naylor designed the bright yellow home page that states the Un-included’s goal to start a new youth movement.
And Ms. Naylor knows first-hand what it’s like to be un-included. Because she worked hard in the classroom, some thought she was a “goody-goody.” She now works at a local fast food restaurant and studies computer programming, psychology and art at Temple College.
“There’s a lot of peer pressure, especially in high school. The secret is not letting people get to you,” Ms. Naylor said.
According to the Web site, the club “is a social way to turn and keep people who are subject to peer pressure away from the negative activities that are still on the rise today.”
Back on Avenue D, kids climb on Big Garfield, six-feet-two inches tall, like he’s one of the hackberry trees growing in his yard. He provides basketballs, footballs and a trampoline until the kids wore it out (permission slips were required, he said). But one block away, Jeff Hamilton Park has a history of problems with drug dealers. City council member Patsy Luna said the city has made changes, but it’s an ongoing situation.
“These kids that he’s working with, a lot of them live around the park, and they’re taking ownership and calling in when they see something that’s not right,” Mrs. Luna said. “His activities will just enforce that. To help keep the park a good safe place to play.”
The park today is clean, fenced and manicured like a golf course.
Hawk’s childhood friend since about age 10, Freeman Johnnie works at a state prison in Coryell County. He says every day he sees the ones that slipped through the cracks, the ones the Un-included club could have helped. Among the prisoners, he sees a common denominator - lack of willpower to stand up and be counted out. Like Hawk, he says keeping youth out of trouble begins at home.
“There’s too many parents that are friends with their kids, but they’re not parents. They’re like buddies,” Johnnie said.
But he says the other part of the equation, peer pressure, falls on the youth.
“Be your own person. You don’t have to be like everybody else. You don’t have to dress saggy pants and all that because everybody else is doing it,” Johnnie said.
Now that Hawk - whose son, Garfield Hawk IV, starts at defensive end for the Temple Wildcats - has the Un-included club on the Internet, he is looking for someone to help him take it to the next level. This is a good start, he said, but he is looking for more resources.
“I’m real new at this,” he said. “I don’t know how to take that next step.”
fafflerbach@temple-telegram.com
