Youth crusader killed in car crash Joe Opatowski joined Kielburger foundation PHINJO GOMBU Joe Opatowski, a young man who walked away from a troubled home life to inspire tens of thousands of school children to help change the world, often said that one day he would complete a masters in friendship, a Ph.D. in eye contact and a lifetime of laughter. It was the kind of thing the 21-year-old Opatowski said to the schoolchildren he spoke to every year as he crisscrossed North America for Leaders Today, a group associated with Free the Children, an organization founded by Toronto-area activists Craig and Marc Kielburger. Those who knew Opatowski say he loved nothing better than talking to young people about the need to become engaged in, and care for, the world around them. He had just given such a speech to schoolchildren in Buffalo, N.Y., when, driving home Friday to Toronto with a friend, he died in a car accident. His friend survived. "He was amazing," Marc Kielburger recalled yesterday. "He related to the kids and the kids really related to him and he was able to talk in their language and they were moved by his presence and his love and his passion. "I don't know how to say this, but when he passed away, he was so happy, he was doing his calling which was motivating kids to create positive change in their lives and the world," Kielburger said. It wasn't always so. As Opatowski poignantly wrote in Me to We, Turning Self-Help On Its Head, a recently released set of essays with contributions from such famous world figures as Richard Gere, Jane Goodall and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the early years were difficult. He endured the constant domestic fights around him, saw a brother sent to a group home then run away to the streets, and had regular visits by police to his house. One day about six years ago, he decided to walk away from it all when he met another kid who knew the Kielburgers. That friend urged him to volunteer for the group. The enticement was the possibility of "tons of girls," Opatowski wrote. He was always a vocal child. Hanging out with the Free the Children crowd allowed him to raise his voice in a new way, including incorporating rap poems into his inspirational speeches. Kielburger said Opatowski had an infectious sense of humour that included his tendency to walk around with a sign pinned on him that read "free hug." He refused to give handshakes. He always hugged people. Then there was the time he did the hardest thing ever in his life to raise funds for a scholarship to send children to a leadership course. He was silent for two weeks. Each day that passed, people pledged money. Fourteen days later he had raised $5,000. As part of his work with Free the Children, Opatowski travelled to Jamaica and his experience there of seeing, as he put it, the "poorest kids on earth" smiling and laughing changed him forever. "I quickly realized it wasn't all about me, after all," Opatowski wrote. "I wasn't the only victim. As bad as I had it, somebody else had it worse." He was offered a job with Free the Children and came into his own speaking to and inspiring other young children. In one year alone, Opatowski is estimated to have spoken before 100,000 children in schools across North America. Just last month, he spoke to about 650 students from grades 9 to 12 in Wilmington, Del., recalled Patrick Donovan, executive director of a Catholic youth ministry there. Donovan said he had invited Opatowski for a second time, because he had never seen so many young people so quiet and so attentive and on the edge of their seats as he spoke. His message was repeated again and again: The young people of today have an obligation to care for one another and to care for the less fortunate. "I have been involved with young people for 15 years, and I don't think I've met another young person who could move his peers like the way Joe could," Donovan recalled. "Joe was able to really and truly tell a story. He was a kid telling a story to a bunch of other kids and letting them know that there is a big world out there and they're not always the centre of it." A chapel service is open to the public at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Ogden Funeral Home, 4164 Sheppard Ave. E. A scholarship fund is being set up in Opatowski's name by Free the Children to send youth overseas on volunteer leadership trips. |