Life has a way of constantly moving over the Joseph W. Casey Bridge in Lawrence.
Under it, on the shores of the Merrimack River, is a completely different story.
A charred rubber duck sits in the ashes of trash and other waste. A torn couch, used as someone’s makeshift bed, is wedged on a slant where the curve of the bridge and the wall meet.
Tents, some cloaked with worn-down blankets just to keep in some kind of heat during the winter nights, create a small village in the dark underbelly of the bridge.
It’s just one place where the homeless of Lawrence find refuge for a night’s sleep, and it’s a place most people don’t think about.
Except for a select few.
These are the ones who placed a 2-foot high Christmas tree in the middle of the circle of tents. The Movement Family, a group of 20-somethings and high school students, spearheaded by Michael Gorman, a 22-year-old senior guard on the Anna Maria College basketball team, are out building relationships and giving back to the “forgotten” ones.
“I call them my family, too,” Gorman said. “I look at them like they are my brothers and sisters, so they mean a lot to me.”
Strong roots
Gorman doesn’t share the same background as those he’s trying to help. He comes from a stable family, one in which opportunities, especially through athletics, were encouraged and afforded to him.
Gorman grew up learning the game of basketball from his father, Rick, a prominent youth basketball coach on the North Shore. Michael was a starter on the basketball team at Methuen High and moved on to a four-year career at Anna Maria. He is the captain of this year’s team.
But the list of friends and peers who didn’t have those chances was very long. Gorman saw it. It struck a chord with him, and during the summer heading into his freshman year of college, he decided to do something about it. At first, The Movement Family was just a chance to get those within his inner circle together to hash out issues or problems that arose in their lives.
Gorman said he had six to eight young adults in the “program” in those early stages.
Now 30-40 kids show up consistently to a session during the spring and summer months. From May-August, The Movement Family hosts get-togethers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In the few short hours it spends together, the group plays basketball, works out or just finds a way to connect with one another. On weekends, the group does community service.
Numbers on rise
Gorman estimates 250 people have come in and out of The Movement Family in its four years.
Some come to get clean from drugs or alcohol. Others need to flee from gang ties. Some just need someone to talk to because there is nobody else to sit and listen.
“Honestly, I didn’t know it would grow this big,” Gorman said. “My intention was to just spread the word. Everybody deserves to be loved out there.”
Gorman’s lifetime friend, Lance Hill, a 22-year-old student at Merrimack College, has been there since the early stages.
“It was good to see him do that because you look at it like, ‘that could be me,’ ” Hill, a graduate of Central Catholic High School, said. “That could be someone that I’m really close to, so I’m going to help out that person as if they are one of my own.”
Then there are those who absolutely need The Movement Family to better their lives.
Christopher “Chito” Pagan of Lawrence grew up in the gang culture and withdrew from high school because of it. He ran into trouble, got into drugs and was homeless. He is 21 years old.
Since working with the group, Pagan has obtained his GED, but he still knows the realities of his situation. Pagan still has to “couch surf” from night to night, counting upon friends for a place to sleep, but he credits The Movement Family with getting him this far.
“This whole time I’m seeing myself grow as a person, while also seeing them grow,” Pagan said. “There is a love connection there, even if we aren’t family.”
Roll with it
The plan to go under bridges and help the homeless in Lawrence wasn’t the initial one for The Movement Family.
It just developed.
Gorman and his swelling group decided if they truly wanted to have a positive influence on the community, they had to help the ones who’d been completely lost in the shuffle. The reach now includes collecting donations, whether it is food or clothing, and delivering it to those in need.
Gorman doesn’t just drop things off as a show of good faith. Gorman is out there making lasting relationships. Earlier in the year, he helped a young woman get clean and helped her obtain a ticket to Chicago to reunite with her family.
He keeps up with the people who are behind bars, as he has a stack of some 30 or 40 letters from people incarcerated at various jails and prisons around the state.
“I just had to think outside the box,” Gorman said. “I see out there and nothing was really done to help it. I felt for these people. I call them the forgotten ones. Yeah, they might have made some mistakes, burnt their bridges too many times, but I want to try to help them get on their feet again, not give up hope on them. I never want to give up on an individual.”
Time to celebrate
This is the second year Gorman and The Movement Family have added a Christmas piece to their efforts, but it’s the first one in which they put a tree in the middle of the tented village as a sign of the holidays. The plan on Christmas is for Gorman and a small group of his peers to return to that spot and celebrate the holiday with the people living there.
Half of Christmas will be spent with his own family. The other with his adopted one.
The tree was decorated last weekend. Donated gift cards from Subway and Wal-Mart will be wrapped and under the tree.
Gorman calls it “Christmas Under the Bridge,” and he’s hoping that this is just the start of the work he’s doing in the community.
“I want it to grow and get bigger,” Gorman said. “A dream would be maybe take one of these mills in Lawrence and make it into a ‘TMF’ facility where I can start something in the future. I don’t know where I want to go with it, but I never want it to die out.”
