A young man makes an impression on President Bush

Dana Perino:

An Unforgettable Lesson in Character

This is the remarkable story of a young man born prematurely, and in poverty, who rose to work for the President.  It is worth reading in full.

Sorry about the problem with the link.  Here is an excerpt:

Lucas Boyce was born six weeks premature and weighed just over four pounds. His mother was a young teen who struggled with substance abuse and would sell her body to support her habit. That’s how Lucas was conceived. It was a miracle he lived to be born. And his life has been a miracle, too. At ten days old, Lucas was sent to the foster-care home of Dorothy Boyce. Dorothy, a white woman from the Midwest, took care of over forty foster-care children over fifteen years. Lucas says his mother is someone who doesn’t see color—she’s not color blind; she actually just can’t see anyone’s skin color. She just sees the person.

Dorothy adopted six of the children and had four of her own. At one point she was the single mother of eleven foster-care and adopted children. She married when Lucas was in elementary school, and she became the stepmother of her husband’s three girls, too.

To keep the children focused, Lucas says that his mom taught them to believe in what was possible even when challenges seemed insurmountable. She encouraged them to reach for their goals even if they didn’t seem plausible. Little did she know that Lucas would one day work at the White House for President George W. Bush.

Fast-forward to March 2002, when Lucas, as one of the interns in the Office of Presidential Personnel, was invited to the South Lawn of the White House as part of a photo opportunity in support of volunteer service. After the photo, Lucas stepped aside and, as he did, the president gestured to him and said, “Come on, let’s get a picture,” and he called over his official photographer, Eric Draper.

Overcome with excitement, Lucas threw his arm around the president in kind of a brotherly hug. An obviously bold move and, he thought, probably a breach of protocol, but, being a rookie, he didn’t know any better.

The next day Lucas’s boss, Ed Moy, came back to their office and said, “So, you made a real impression on the president,” and immediately Lucas got a sinking feeling that he’d gotten too chummy with the president and that his internship was over.

He began to apologize, but Ed said that after the meeting the president called him over to his desk and said, “Hey, I met this kid on the South Lawn yesterday. He said he works for you. What’s his name again?”

Moy said, “Lucas Boyce.”

“Yeah, well, I really enjoyed meeting him.”

Moy shot back, “Probably not as much as he enjoyed meeting you, sir.”

The president laughed and asked, “What’s his story?” Moy told him a little bit about Lucas and his background, and the president said, “Well, what can we do for him? Let’s bring him onboard.”
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There is also a humorous story about his first time on Air Force One where he sat in the President's chair in the onboard conference room.  Later he introduced his parents to the President.