"The biggest thing [The Salvation Army's Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center] did for me besides keeping him in a safe place, was you taught my child how to swim," Riley said. "Aziz learned how to swim here. We came to watch him – his mother, his father and me – and all we did was cry. Aziz can swim, and then he also went scuba diving? Where are we? Is this really Camden?"
Seeing her grandson at all is a gift that Riley counts her blessings for every day. After what she has been through, seeing Aziz born, let alone seeing him grow up, seemed unlikely. Ten years ago, Riley suffered a stroke; and then another and another. All told, Riley has suffered five strokes over the course of the last decade. The days lost to hospital beds have been far too many to count. Yet whatever toll those strokes have taken from here physically, they have done nothing to disrupt her mentally or slow her hunger for her family to succeed.
"This is something on my bucket list – to spend valued time with my grandchildren before I go to sleep," Riley said passionately. "But before I go to sleep, they are going to have to tie me down. Thanks to this place and Life of Lords – which is where I go for medical and is the reason I'm alive – between mentally here and physically there, I might be here for a while."
Riley became aware of what the Kroc Center had to offer shortly after its opening. Her nephew had been going through health problems and hoped the fitness components the building had to offer could help him become healthier.
"He's lost fifty pounds since coming here," Riley said. "I knew I had to come check it out."
As summer approached, she also knew she had to find a way to get her grandson into the six-week summer camp offered at the Kroc Center. So with the help of Aziz's father, Riley made the financial investment necessary to ensure Aziz's summer would be one to remember.
"The most positive thing that I have seen here this summer is that children in Camden have somewhere to go," said Riley. "I have lived in Camden for over 50 years and used to sit and watch the fireman come here (the Kroc Center site which used to be a landfill) because the fire would be coming out of the ground. I've been here a long time. Children have somewhere to go now. You really don't know how many lives you have saved here. These kids come in here in droves. They love this place, and I like it too."
"I had to find somewhere for my grandson to go for the summer where I knew he could be safe,” Riley continued. There are so many children and young black males, and Hispanics and whites killed on these streets every day.”
Riley paused before speaking about two young men in their 20s who were killed in Camden the night before.
"I don’t care what city or town you are in - things happen, and I don't want my child to be out there. I thank God for his blessings for allowing us to be here."
In addition to learning how to swim, Aziz has improved on his math skills thanks in small part to the café. Riley makes sure her grandson can count change before allowing him to order a meal.
Despite seeing so many tragic things in her 50-plus years living in Camden, Riley's outlook is one of extreme positivity. She believes things have made a serious stride in the right direction in recent years and that the Kroc Center is a major step in the right direction for the city's future.
"I have friends that come here from Voorhees," she said with a raised brow. "That's interesting to me. People never wanted to come through (Camden) on the bus, but they come here to the Kroc Center because they always know they are safe. You see people walking here, you see people coming in buses, cabs. People are coming to this place. This place is awesome."
After being through so much the last 10 years, Riley has a true appreciation for life and the time she gets to spend with her family. Having a place where that could happen this summer was the ultimate gift.
"I couldn't have anything better," she said. "Kids always ask me what I want for my birthday, and I always tell them 'love, peace and happiness.' And God knows this has been my love, peace and happiness to have my grandson with me."
Written by Eric Schwartz
Operations Assistant
The Salvation Army Kroc Center - Camden
