DESIGNATED FETCHER

In the world of pickup games, sandlot baseball and P.E. classes, the smallest kids always get chosen last. It's always a bad deal when teams are picked and you are the last one to be taken.

Believe or not, inside the Cesis Boys Prison they have conquered that problem. Yesterday after chapel, I went down to the recreation area. The boys had a couple of soccer games going as well as outdoor basketball and volleyball games. I looked over and there was one little kid quite a bit smaller than the rest and he had on a reflectorized, green safety vest. Some places the vests are orange but here they are a glowing green.

So the little kid is just standing out there by himself between the soccer field and basketball court wearing this goofy vest. I thought maybe he was being disciplined or something because the odds of him being run over by a truck or something were pretty slim seeing as how he was in a prison recreation yard.

Next thing I knew, a soccer ball had bounced through the first barbed-wire fence. They really have three fences, first is barbed wire, followed by a type of ribbon wire which is very, very sharp, then there is a solid wooden fence about 14 feet high, topped by wire.

When the ball bounces over the fence, the kid in the vest is the ONLY one permitted to go through or near the fence. A guard comes over and raises the wire just enough for the designated fetcher to go through (that's where the lack of size helps), get the ball and come out.

Now the little kid is a big hero because the game can continue and every body is happy...guards, players and the designated fetcher. It all looked like a pretty good plan to me!