Ever Barrera is a dreamer, in all aspects of the word. At age 14, knowing no English, he came to the U.S. from El Salvador, settling in Chelsea.
A DREAMer child, his mom left him with his grandmother when he was eight.
鈥淪he came here to give us a better life. It wasn鈥檛 very safe. We lost a lot of family members because of violence in the country,鈥 said Barrera.
Barrera is a busy man and father. He drives for Lyft and is a full-time staff member for Boston Scores, a soccer program with Boston Public Schools that provides kids with afterschool soccer and enrichment programs.
And now, he is running the Boston Marathon for the Boston Scores team.
鈥淚 never had a job like that, you know. I always had labor jobs,鈥 Barrera said. 鈥淚 feel like we come to this world with a purpose and a mission鈥 think this is my purpose.鈥
Andy Crossly, COO of Boston Scores, said what makes Barrera so good at his job is how well he connects with the kids.
鈥淗e relates really well to these kids,鈥 Crossly said. 鈥淎 lot of the kids that we serve are recent arrivals to the United States. So I think he shares a lot of lived experience with our kids.鈥
Barrera began working for Scores as a part-time referee and worked his way up. He says his immigrant experience and love for soccer is why he got involved with Boston Scores.
鈥淎 lot of our kids, I want to say like 65 percent, are Latino. They looked at me like 鈥極h, he looks like me.鈥 They feel more connected, more comfortable talking to me in Spanish,鈥 he said.
This year is the first in nearly a decade that Boston Scores will have a marathon team, and it鈥檚 the first year Barrera is running.
鈥淗e joined our staff two years ago, and when I found out he was going to do the Marathon, it didn鈥檛 surprise me,鈥 Crossley said. 鈥淗e just keeps adding things to his collection of things he does for the program and the kids.鈥
The team wasn鈥檛 sure what to expect, but they鈥檝e surpassed $120,000 in fundraising.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know anything about fundraising, and Andy helped me create a plan,鈥 Barrera said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the same thing as asking people like, 鈥楬ey, can I get five bucks for something?鈥 This is different. I feel embarrassed asking my friends. But he鈥檚 like, 鈥楴o don鈥檛 worry.鈥 So he鈥檚 been helping me a lot.鈥
Barrera has his eye set on the finish line for a special person.
鈥淔irst of all, I want to finish. I want to get that medal,鈥 Barrera said. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 seen my grandma in 16 years. She鈥檚 coming in May from El Salvador, and that鈥檚 one of the things I want to show her.鈥
Noticing all of his accomplishments, Lyft will be highlighting Barrera in a national campaign.
Luis Armando Albino was six years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing at an Oakland, Calif., park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.
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The prime minister's official itinerary says the interview will be shot during his trip to New York, where he is meeting with other world leaders ahead of the 78th gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.
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