I had my very own “Cynicism Can Suck It” moment this week.

A couple of weeks ago, I met the Mugabo family. Immigrants from Rwanda, they’re originally from Congo, but fled the violence there and went to a refugee camp in Rwanda. Eventually, they made it to Columbia. About a month ago, the father, Jean-Marie, drowned in Stephens Lake, leaving behind a wife and seven children, one of whom is 16-year-old James, his oldest.

James is going to grow up a lot. He has to learn how to drive, to communicate (his mother speaks very little English) and to take responsibility for himself and his family. The family has already graciously opened up their home to myself, so we’ll see where this story goes.

On a side note — and the real reason cynicism can bite me — I was out yesterday with James and a family friend, Wissel, while Wissel was giving James some driving lessons. Wissel got a call from somebody who had volunteered to fix up the family’s van, and we went to pick it up. I thought the couple who volunteered knew James’s family through church, but they actually volunteered to help the family out after reading a Tribune article that I shot a photo for. I can’t begin to describe the personal feeling that I had knowing this story caused somebody to act.

So there, anyone who tells you that journalism can’t make a difference, tell them to take a walk.