The Boulder homeless couple featured in a Nov. 21 Boulder Weekly feature story — Lexi and Chris Weaver — now has a little girl.
The baby was born last weekend. Mike Coccoli of Americans 4 Social Justice (A4SJ) told BW that thanks in large part to the article, the couple has received generous support from donors and local homeless advocacy agencies, which have provided temporary housing and other resources that permitted the child to be born indoors, with the necessary support, rather than under the bridge where the couple was living. (See letter to the editor this week.)
But not all feedback has been positive. Tom Cummins of A4SJ says the couple was shaken up by the negative comments posted under the online version of Boulder Weekly’s story, and is unwilling to release the names of the assisting agencies or donors, or even the name of their baby, for fear of negative consequences such as having someone call in the local child protective services unit.
In the comment section under the BW story, two people identified as “Kristina11” and “Shawn” got into a heated debate about issues such as how, and whether, the homeless couple should be bringing a new life into the world.
The online comments “shook them up big-time. I thought they were going to pull a runner,” Cummins said, referring to the likelihood that the couple would leave town. “But luckily, the baby came a little early, so they didn’t have time to plan it.”
He added that the couple is doing very well.
“These first couple of weeks with the baby are going to be exactly what they need to get back on track,” Cummins said. “They’re going to be OK.”
But he said the online comments section after the BW article was not constructive.
“All that shit that ended up in those comments was just really hard to stomach,” Cummins said. “These people don’t know these kids. And here they are making all these judgments about them. I mean, they are the nicest kids. They would give you the shirt off their back. To be treated that way was just ugly.”
Cummins did say that A4SJ received a significant amount of donations thanks to the BW story, even more than the contributions sent to the Weavers.
Anyone who would like to donate money to either the couple or the organization can send checks payable to A4SJ to P.O. Box 17356, Boulder, CO 80308.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
