That Camp Life
Summer is the time most athletes with charitable foundations reconnect with the organizations in which they are passionate and spend some real time availing themselves to those causes. As someone without a traditional charity in my own name, I take pride in assisting the efforts of close friend and teammates. JJ Newman (I call him Jimmy-Jam) hosted his annual charity weekend in Wheeling, West Virginia. JJ’s played professional baseball for a number of years, most notably with the New York Mets. The foundation supports a variety of disenfranchised children in the West Virginia area. Unfortunately, this year the weather in Wheeling did not permit us to have a usual celebrity softball game and a home run derby. So this year we steered onto the hardwood to play a celebrity basketball game at a nearby boys home. The weather turned out to be a gift in disguise. We connected with the children on a level like never before. Organizing the teams so the youth could actually play with the celebrities made them feel much more involved in the entire experience. The kids really lost themselves in the game. It didn’t feel like a forced interaction like so many of these events can. I am proud to have been involved. We have also decided to incorporate an annual basketball game next year into the normal festivities to guarantee that the children involved, get unadulterated access to the ‘celebrity’ participants.
During our 5 years together with the New York Giants, Terrell Thomas has become somewhat of a peer mentor to me. Terrell (T2) has been a consummate professional since my arrival to the Giants in 2009. He has never hesitated to share with me nuances I could harness to improve skill sets and stay in the league. T2 has a very inspiring story as he has recovered from 3 separate ACL injuries, a pitfall once deemed career-ending and life-compromising. But the determination and commitment to success by the likes of Terrell Thomas and others have proved that even the most treacherous gridiron casualties can be overcome.
It was and will continue to be my pleasure in assisting T2 with his yearly Dream Big football skills camp. His camp is every Summer in Fontana, California, where the focus is teaching the campers about football from the perspective of experts who have mastered the game, however the biggest emphasis lies in the question-answer session that concludes each camp. This panel interview session allows student-athletes the first hand insight on how to conduct themselves in order to achieve success in whichever path they’ve created for themselves. And of course, I ALWAYS find a way to sprinkle a tidbit of my Holistic Lifestyle, a message for which I am very passionate.