Maybe he signed up because he liked working with kids. Or maybe it was the perfect antidote for a young man who came to the East Coast from Minneapolis and its suburbs and found a chilly way of life in Philadelphia.
People are much nicer in the Midwest.
Hicks has been tutoring neighborhood children ever since. One semester he coordinated the WPTP, and this semester, he's team leader for Middle Years Alternative School at 48th and Chestnut streets. That Hicks volunteers doesn't make him unique. That's how Hicks sees it. He's gained something else.