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“Football is just a tool,”
says Smith. “There are lessons to be learned in this game of
football.”
Among the numerous
volunteers who assist Smith is Robert “Pig” Odoms, a retired
area football coach whom Smith recruited at the onset, 15
years ago, to help out.
“I can’t run it without
you,” Smith told Odoms then. Smith, who attended Scott High
School and went to the University of Pittsburgh on a
football scholarship before spending time in the NFL, was
all too familiar with the football knowledge Odoms could
bring to the camp. Odoms, after all, was Smith’s first
football coach.
“I’ve been coaching for 35
years,” says Odoms who has spent time with virtually every
Toledo Public Schools football program. “I love kids and
anything I can do to help keep them off the streets, I want
to do it.”
“Kids don’t have the
mentors like we did when we were coming up,” he says. “As I
go around the neighborhoods, I don’t see adult attendants at
fields, nothing is open and there are too many negative
things for them to do.”
Smith has been operating
his camp long enough that former attendees are now part of
the volunteer corps.
Not all of Smith’s
volunteers are football folks however. There are nurses, for
example, who serve to safeguard the health of the campers.
Dawn King, LPN, a childhood friend of Smith, has been
volunteering since the early days also and has brought along
others to assist her.
The kids get minor
injuries, of course, and they also come to the camp with
issues that need monitoring, such as asthma or diabetes.
“I feel like it’s a good
opportunity to serve the community, to help out youth and to
mentor other nurses,” says King of the many reasons for her
long-time involvement. “It’s a good time and a great thing
to be involved in.”
Some of Smith’s volunteers
spend more than one week a year helping to put the whole
thing together. Mona Bills, for example, who has also been
involved for the entire 15-year run, and helps get kids
registered, works with parents on time issues, gets food
delivered, t-shirts arranged and all the administrative
duties that such an undertaking demands. Bills also helps
out year-round with critical tasks such as fund-raising.
Bills came to the project
through her connections – she is Smith’s sister.
“It’s a good cause,” she
says of the camp. “There aren’t many programs out here for
inner-city young men.”
For Smith, his summer
activities – he has also conducted a girls’ basketball camp
– are labors of love. “I’m just pleased that I can do it,”
he says
For those around Smith,
his dedication to the cause has inspired their involvement.
“I’m so proud of him,”
says Odoms, who has been astonished at what Smith, whom he
has known for so many years, has accomplished in adulthood.
“It shows what hard work can do.” |
