October 25, 2023
Promise kept
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Submittd photo River Lakey, a freshman at Lindenwood University and a member of the Lions’ football team, is shown here with the family who found him alongside a Rwandan road as a few-day old infant in 2004. Lakey and his adoptive father, Jimmy, who have launched River’s Promise.
Lindenwood freshman starts foundation to battle childhood poverty in Africa on journey from an orphanage in Rwanda to Division I football By Brett Auten River Lakey is currently a freshman student and defensive back at Lindenwood University, but his story and outreach goes way beyond South Kingshighway Street in St. Charles. Lakey landed here from Frederick, Colorado but his story begins on a harrowing night in Kigali, Rwanda. It was a rainy evening there in 2004 when a baby was found
on the side of the street. He still had the scab of his umbilical cord, so it was thought that he was only a few days old. “A woman found me and I was later dropped at an orphanage because the family wasn’t able to take care of me,” Lakey said. He was still at that orphanage until Jimmy Lakey arrived. “A few years later my dad was on mission trip with a church and that’s when he de-
cided to adopt a kid,” River Lakey said. “I was four years old.” Jimmy made a pledge to River and to the other children there that they would get the education and resources they would need to have a better future. River and his father soon after became partners in a foundation called River’s Promise with the lofty goal of ending child poverty by giving opporSee ‘PROMISE’ page 2
Serving St. Louis, St. Charles and Lincoln Counties | FREE Online at mycnews.com | Vol. 25 No. 43 | 636-379-1775
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