The Emotional Roots of Foundation 21

John Christopher bounced from orphanage to foster home before the Christopher family took him in as a teen. About 30 years later, when he and his wife lost their son in an alcohol-related crash in 2007, Christopher could have whimpered in a fetal position for the rest of his life. He’d reached his quota of trauma.

Instead, he’s working hard to reduce trauma in the lives of others and open the eyes of young people who might be headed down a treacherous path.

Christopher’s Foundation 21 is having its annual fundraising dinner Saturday night at the in Novato. It’s not too late to get tickets and enjoy a first-class dinner and live music. More on that below.

Foundation 21 got its name from the baseball jersey number of his son, Jonathan, and the age Jonathan was when he died in a crash near the on Super Bowl Sunday. Twenty-one also was the number of years John had been clean and sober when Jonathan’s crash took place.

“Thank God he didn’t kill anybody else,” John said a few days ago. “He paid the ultimate price.”

Foundation 21 was set up — according to its mission statement — to reach out to youths, help them make responsible life choices and stay on track toward a positive future. The goal is to bring awareness and provide assistance to young people about drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide and depression. On the positive side, it makes efforts to make sure kids are aware of the vast range of career options available to them.

“There’s a lot of help out there,” John Christopher said. “Sometimes with these kids, it’s all about making them aware of all that help.”

The foundation raises funds for scholarships to given students at Novato high schools and helps underprivileged kids pay fees to play Little League baseball.

Christopher works for Kone (pronounced ko-nay) Elevator in repair and service of elevators and escalators. It’s an international company with a corporate office in San Leandro, and he spends a lot of time on the road. But a big concern of his is his longtime home of Novato, where he has lived since 1979. He is working closely with administrators at High School and the NOVA program, both run by the .

“I’m not a professional counselor, and I didn’t go through years of sociology in school,” he said, “but the thing I can share with them is what I lived through and what I have done to move forward. It’s all about being honest with yourself.”

Christopher said he is convinced that it all boils down to making good choices. One of his first good choices — that he can remember — was when he was 7. He had been in and out of an orphanage and several foster homes and was allowed to stay with the Christopher family at that time in his life. His behavior was horrible, he said, until he realized that he’d continue without a permanent place to live if he kept up his antics. The Christophers ended up adopthing him when John was 15.

“I'm lucky the Christophers took me in," he said. "I look at kids like this (in Novato) and think if there’s anything I can do today to prevent one of them from going through what I went through, then I’ve made a good contribution."

Christopher and his wife, Karen, invite all to learn more about Foundation 21 by checking out the website or attending the fundraiser, which starts at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Margaret Todd Senior Center. Dinner features prime rib and salmon, and there will be a band, live auction, silent auction and raffle. To RSVP, call 892-0380 or email john@foundationtwentyone.org.