With just the hint of a smile, he dashes away and turns four consecutive, beautiful back flips. This is the boy whose shoes I carried to his mother. The building used to be a school. Now it's a community center. It's perched on the Central Hillside, overlooking downtown, in one of Duluth's grittiest neighborhoods.
Kids start filling the halls as soon as school lets out.
Some of them come here to see adult mentors. Some are getting help with homework. Today, some of them are here to do back flips. A couple dozen kids have spread mats on the floor and taken off their shoes. Now they're bounding across the gym, turning cartwheels and handsprings.