Former Slippery Rock University football standout Jaimire Dutrieuille isn’t your typical victim.

After suffering nearly life-ending gunshot wounds last spring while shielding a 9-year-old girl during a drive-by shooting, the Braddock man isn’t sitting on the sidelines feeling sorry about his situation or scared to move on.

Instead, the SRU graduate is turning a negative into a positive as he swiftly garners support for a youth program in his hometown aimed at helping youngsters rise above and reach for the stars.

Dutrieuille’s mother, Heather Brooks, summed up her son’s determination best when she told The Eagle: “He didn’t go to a dark place. He easily could have shut down, been bitter and turned away from everybody. I know God is guiding him. He’s turning this into a positive.”

All of us can learn an important lesson from this young man whose life got turned upside down six months ago that fateful afternoon in May.

Neither he nor his family and friends ever gave up in the face of what must have felt like insurmountable odds — a bullet lodged near his optical nerve, the possibility of blindness and brain damage, having to learn to walk again.

Instead, Dutrieuille forged ahead, persevered, and now looks to change the path for other young people living in a neighborhood better known for crime rates and abandoned homes.

We need more people like Jaimire Dutrieuille in our communities. More people willing to change the course of history for the next generation. They’re out there.

Over the last three months, The Eagle introduced readers to several people right here in Butler looking to help at-risk youngsters too often forgotten by the system with our “Surviving the Family Tree” series. From drug counselors to former addicts to teachers and principals — they’re out there altering the trajectory of lives one child, one family, at a time.

Famed cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said it best: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Those words were never truer than they are today — in a day and age where people are more insular, angrier and, sadly, more ready to point fingers than grab a shovel and dig in.

Whether it’s North Braddock or Butler or Slippery Rock, our communities face the challenges of increased drug activity and the criminal elements accompanying it. And the only way to face those challenges is by borrowing a page from the Jaimire Dutrieuille playbook.

During this holiday season of giving, keep in mind that donations aren’t the only thing needed by community groups looking to change the course of our communities. Boots on the ground are just as critical to bringing about those changes. We need to get off the sideline bench and band together as a team — march down the field toward the goal line — and score a much-needed touchdown for the next generation.