KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For the kids in juvenile detention, Super Bowl Sunday can be tough. It's a reminder of how their mistakes have separated them from friends, family and a chance to be a "normal" teenager.
At the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center, about 50 kids were serving time ahead of the big game. Charles "Charlie" Susano III paid them a visit -- something he used to do with his father.
"They're there because of their actions, but we want to try to give them a normal day like everybody else has on the Super Bowl," Susano III said. "You know, let them know that there are people that care about them."
He and his daughter brought about sixty pizzas to the detention center. Susano III, now the clerk of circuit court civil sessions and juvenile clerk, said his father inherited the tradition from another woman who moved away.
"We were in a conversation of some kind over at the juvenile center -- Judge Irwin is a good friend," said his father Charles Susano, a retired appellate judge. "I said, 'we'll be glad to do that' and decided to give each kid a pizza."
Susano remembers the kids feeling grateful for the small gesture.
"They were very, very, very generous in what they said about that," Susano recalled. "We have so much, and the people we're helping have so little."
That lesson in kindness is something he and his wife taught all three of their kids, including Charlie Susano III.
"One thing my dad always taught me and I always try to remember is always try to leave somebody better off than you found them," Susano III said. "Some of the kids... they may only be interested in that pizza. But I like to let them know that somebody is out there thinking about them."
On Sunday, Susano III and the staff of the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center gave each kid as much pizza as they could eat. For some, that meant a few slices. For others, it was a whole pie.
"This is my little way of giving something to them, giving them a little joy on a day when everybody else might be with their families and friends," Susano III said. "Although they're there now, they don't always have to be there. Things can change for them, and hopefully things will change for them."