I had a nice suprise in my Ravelry inbox yesterday...

Almost 2 years ago (February 12, 2008) a young man Lawrence (Larry) King had been shot in the head by a classmate of his. Larry happened to be gay who was out a young age. Larry died two days later in hospital at the age of 13. I found out about this remarkable young man about a week later, through a post on a Ravelry thread. It turned out that Larry was a crocheter, along with his mom. 

The circumstances aren't so cut and dried though. He was adopted, with his birth mother being a drug addict.  So Larry was dealing with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome which has its own problems. Among these are socialization and impulsive issues. At the time of his death he was in the custody of Children Services. There had been documented behavior issues.

Larry was often bullied by the other boys, although we may never know the full extent of the bullying. Larry was often seen as the "instigator" in the situations, however I believe that had more to do with his socialization and impulse issues than Larry "planning on ticking thes boys off".  In today's society we are seeing sexual exploration at a much earlier age. If you don't fit in you are screwed.

So I searched out more information and came across a website called In Memory of Lawrence King. I posted a comment in the Guestbook, which is the third to last comment. I also started a Ravelry group and a blog as a way to remember this extraordinary young man.

Now to go to what happened yesterday...I heard from Larry's mom, Dawn King. Dawn thanked me for my kind thoughts and prayers.  Dawn also explained to me about the scarves.

This is Dawn's explanation in her own words..."Yes Larry and I started doing the scarves for the troops here because of the 3 military bases all within a 1/4 mile from our home.. and he found out a lot of them don’t ever receive mail or packages from home and he didn’t want them to feel forgotten.. so we crocheted and collected goodies to send care packages the the CB base to be sent the troops over seas.. 1st yr they went to Iraq 2nd yr sent Afghanistan , 3 yr Romania.

This yr, I am doing it in his memory.. Its hard with him not by my side helping but I know he is here in spirit and it keeps me going."

So if you are interested go to Ravelry group or blog to find out more information on what you can do to support the troops, whether in the US or Canada.

Cora