It has been an unusual few years for all of us. For teens, it's been particularly difficult. At a very social time in their lives, they find themselves increasingly alone. A lot of them bridge the gap using social media and video games. One mom was tired of seeing her son on the couch and decided to take action.
Sharon Collins wanted her teen son, Thomas, to get a job that would help others. "I made up this big story about how lazy he was and people just started calling me," she told WBZ. She posted the story using #campaigngetthomasoffthecouch.
"He was eating me out of the snack cabinet, being lazy on the couch and playing video games, so I said what the heck, I'll try to get him something," she said.
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Thomas found his calling doing yard work. He mows and rakes lawns, weeds garden beds, and stacks firewood, among other tasks. As he racked up more clients, she realized that it wasn't always about the yard work. Sometimes, lonely members of their community were just looking for a little company.
"A lot of them seem like they're enjoying more talking to me, me eating with them, than me actually doing the work. They just want the interaction," Thomas explained.
"A lot of them make me lunch and tell me a lot of stories. It makes me really happy, like I'm helping people out."
"Sometimes, I think he's probably bored stiff talking to an old lady, but he never indicates that in any way. He's a good listener, too, so it's been nice,” said Mary Powers, one of Thomas' clients. Mary talks to Thomas through her second-story window as he mows her lawn and helps with her vegetable garden.
"She wrote what a fantastic young man he is and that he reminds her of her grandson, and she can't see her family and it's much harder these days to even see anyone," Sharon said.
"She said, in not so many words, that she liked his company and she wished she could pay him every week so he could come and talk to her."
"He's gone out and he's proven to me that he's kind and empathetic, and you don't always see that in a teenage boy that's 16 years old. I am proud of him because I don't think I taught him that, but somehow, he knows how to do it. I can't take any credit for this. He just came the way he is, and he's certainly not an angel, please God, but he's shown his true colors, and I hope he'll always be his true colors."
