"Sometimes contingent events come in unfortunate form. In the case of Steve Mariotti, a mugging at the hands of six teenagers was the chance event. In September 1981, Mariotti was walking on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when a group of youths surrounded him, slapped him, knocked him to the ground, and threatened to throw him into the East River. Their target: a 10 US dollar banknote he was carrying.
Traumatized by the event but determined to make something positive out of it, Mariotti decided to become a high school teacher in a New York City neighborhood in an effort to do what he could to improve the lives of young people in the inner cities."