I heard Chris Bosh, NBA basketball star, talking on the radio the other day about a youth charity he leads. He's shopping his skills to many cities, and will have a new contract at $16.5 million per year by the end of July. Any city that gets his services, might also get his support for youth programs.
I also saw an article in the Chicago Tribune about how Chris Zorch, a former football star at Notre Dame, and a "not so great" star with the Chicago Bears, started a youth charity, but that it's now "in disarray" with almost $850,000 in un-accounted donations that have not been distributed to help needed people, as was promised.
Zorich never made as much as Bosh, but $850,000 would do a lot to help Cabrini Connections, or other tutor/mentor programs, overcome the loss of donors caused by this depression.
The Tribune article goes on to talk about the charities of many athletes. Lots of good intentions, but not a lot of business experience. Too bad. That star power could do a lot to help us help kids.
I've written articles in the past showing the potential of athletes using their start power to draw more consistent attention to all of the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago than those programs can do for themselves. I encourage you to read these.
El Da'Sheon Nix, who leads our Cabrini Connections program, and is a former football player at Northwestern, also writes a series of articles using sports concepts to show how tutor/mentor programs work like sports teams, and need fans in the stands and boosters, to help them be great programs.
I tried to find the Chris Bosh Foundation with a Google search, and could not find it. I started "following" him on Twitter, to see if I can get his attention. If he comes to Chicago, he could be a great addition to the Tutor/Mentor Connection team.
If he goes to another big city, he could still use the ideas on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site to add some new plays to his game plan.
If you're in high school, college, or have been lucky enough to make it to the pros, I hope you'll take a look at these ideas.
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