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Thursday night was Focus Forward, a non-profit organizations official launch of it’s first magazine “U-Turns Allowed”.  About 6 months ago I spoke at the Fresno County Juvenile Hall to two separate groups of inmates.  One of which Francis Bowen was apart of and is now a frequent participant of the Freewheel Project.  Shortly after the speaking arrangement I was contacted by Focus Forward in hopes that they could publicize my story to youth around the valley that are apart of the county system in one way or another, Foster Care, Juvenile system etc.. Of course I was very humbled and willing to make this happen!

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect with the publication.  I shared my story to the writer and about a week later she had a rough draft for me to review.  I was shocked!  I need her to travel with me because she can put all the pieces of my story down in half the words!  I’m to long winded! Anyways I went to the launch party with my parents, brother and his wife and we all had a great time.  I met a ton of great people who had non-profits themselves and were totally into doing good things for other people.  When I left I got in my car and seriously said to myself, “I need to figure out how to get to more events like this.” It’s just awesome to be around people who are passionate about doing things for others.

The event was fully catered by Table Mountain Casino and the food was awesome! My family and I found our spot next to the shrimp cocktail spot, the sauce was bomb! After everyone was given a chance to eat they did a intro for each person featured in the magazine and presented them with framed copy of their article in the mag! Let me just say this was a top notch deal! Afterward they handed out all the people magazines and the media filmed some people.

The magazine itself was bar none.. I honestly thought it was going to be a simple publication that could easily be distributed into juvenile systems. No way! This thing is like a 7-10 dollar news stand magazine and the stories are unbelievable.. Really unbelievable. Listen to the intros and reading them first hand, mine is like nothing compared to the others in this magazine. I really feel like some kid is going to be majorly inspired by one of the stories in this magazine.

Each article was sponsored by a organization or company and I got to meet the women behind my article. Her name was Jami De La Cerda and she runs a organization called the Diamond Learning Center.  Definitely a wonderful lady and i’m looking forward to visiting her students or having them out to the track soon to watch some riding!

I made a lot of connections at the event and i’m looking forward to linking up with more of them in the future.  One of the highlights is the possibility of having 40 juvenile hall inmates out to the Fresno BMX track for a private Freewheel Project session!  I’d be so keen to do something like that because all the kids i’d be speaking to are wearing shoes i’ve had on my feet!

A final thank you to all the people who made the Focus Forward Magazine possible!  I’m extremely grateful and humbled!

THoff “Tony Hoffman”

If you are interested in reading the story it can be found here in PDF form  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13836456/FF/UTurnsAllowed.pdf

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THoff