On October 27th, a bright Saturday morning in the Montbello neighborhood, Amesse Elementary hosted a basketball camp in our school gym. Thankfully, I realized that my general lack of athletic talent was irrelevant here (the last time I played basketball was in second grade). Showing up on a Saturday morning, doing wall-sits, and generally being taller than the students made me and my fellow AmeriCorps members cool. It didn’t matter that I rarely made a shot during warm-ups with the kids. Though the turnout was less than we had expected, it became clear as the day progressed that this was an excellent opportunity for the students to receive some close attention from our two volunteer coaches, Johnny Terrell and Jamal Ward.
Throughout the day, the framework seamlessly transitioned from the intricacies of basketball to life, to questions of integrity and perseverance. Our volunteer coaches praised the students when praise was due and kindly pushed them further when necessary. Mental toughness naturally became a theme, a conversation that took place on the court as well as off. At the end of the day, everyone circled up and discussed what worked and what didn’t. What happened? How did that make you feel? What could this mean on a grander scale? To close, the coaches handed out awards and prizes to the students.
This camp was made possible by TCF Bank, B & E Screen Printers, and King Soopers. In addition, the Adair Group(http://www.theadairgroup.com/our-cause.html) graciously donated t-shirts for the event, personalizing and commemorating the event as something worth remembering when the shirt comes through in the clean laundry