I gave a speech at the Annual West Contra Costa YMCA Awards Dinner held at the Richmond Country Club last night. It was well received by the audience, perhaps it will be by you. Have a great weekend.
Peace.
Good Evening,
In a couple of months at a movie theater a couple of miles from here, you are likely to find a movie playing that is entitled “When the Game Stands Tall”. The movie, which will be out just as football season begins, tells the remarkable story of a high school football dynasty. The high school football dynasty depicted is De La Salle High School of Concord, California, and its football teams coached by Bob Ladouceur.
Now, it is unusual to see a movie being made about a high school football team, but the De La Salle High School football teams depicted were special. Indeed, beginning in 1992, the De La Salle High School football teams went undefeated for twelve seasons and for 151 straight games. That is a phenomenal record and is highly unlikely to ever be broken.
In seeing this streak continue and the success of the athletes that graduated from it, many began to ask what was the secret to the success. As it turns out, the secret to the success was that the coach did not so much emphasize the winning but rather focused on getting his players to give a “perfect effort” not just in the game, but in life. Coach Ladouceur knew that success would come if the players were challenged with responsibility and commitment, when the players both individually and together came to develop integrity, discipline, faith and commitment. When that happened, then the “perfect effort” would come, and so would success.
One of the players on the De La Salle High School football team highlighted in the film “When the Game Stands Tall”, is a student from Richmond, California. His name is Terrance Kelly, and he was a star on these undefeated De La Salle teams. Indeed, Terrance Kelly was the captain of the last team to keep the streak alive and during his four years at De La Salle High School, the team never lost a game. At the end of his senior year, Terrance, a four star linebacker prospect was awarded a full athletic scholarship to play football at the University of Oregon and, as a disciple of the “perfect effort” philosophy, appeared on his way to continued success at Oregon and beyond.
However, in what seemed to be a cruel twist of fate, Terrance Kelly’s career at Oregon was stopped before it had even begun. After spending the summer in Oregon, Terrance returned to Richmond before his first year of school was to start to take care of some business and to say goodbye to some friends. While saying goodbye to some friends on an August evening in 2004, he was shot and killed by a young man who allegedly mistook Terrance for someone else.
This seemingly senseless act shocked the City of Richmond and devastated Terrance’s family. It just left so many wondering why such a thing would happen to a young man who had so much promise and who was so good. For so many, the question was “Why God? Why?”
I suppose God answered that question in different ways for different people, however, it is rather remarkable and rather fitting that after the tragic death of Terrance Kelly, Landrin and Mary Kelly, Terrance's father and stepmother, created the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation. The mission of the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation is to inspire and empower at-risk youth who face challenging circumstances to become successful, productive, contributing members of society. The foundation strives to motivate the youth to seek education as an alternative. In essence, the Foundation in its own way strives to encourage our young people to make the “perfect effort” just as Terrance had made during his all too short life.
About 4 years ago, the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation came to our Y looking for a new place to house their youth programs. As an agency that is always looking for partners to work with, our Y welcomed the partnership.
Over the last 4 years, Landrin and Mary Kelly have brought a number of valuable resources and programs to our Y and to the community. And Mary Kelly, in particular, has made significant contributions to our Y facility and Y operations.
Today, Mary Kelly is the coordinator for the Terrance Kelly After School program at the E M Downer Family Y. But Mary is also always looking for new ways to engage the youth. Mary has been the person who has coordinated bringing in specialty programs including photography, hip hop dance and cooking. Mary volunteers with the afterschool program’s homework help and tutoring striving to help others onto the path to success that Terrance Kelly was on.
Mary also supervises the ANGELS program which stands for: Achieving New Goals through Education Learning and Self-esteem. ANGELS is a five-week comprehensive violence prevention program designed to raise awareness before violent acts are committed. At-risk youth between the ages of 12 – 17 are challenged and motivated to reflect upon personal choices, communication and problem solving skills. The program reinforces non-violence and provides a safe environment which allows the youth to build the necessary skills to succeed in life.
In April of this year, Mary, who has worked for Home Depot for 20 years, talked to her boss about the need to spruce up the landscaping around the E M Downer Family Y, where the Terrance Kelly Foundation activities take place. Store manager Allen Fox agreed to donate about $1,000 worth of materials from the store and also solicited donations from vendors, who provided soil, bark and strawberries. On Saturday, April 12, 2014, about 20 volunteers from Home Depot stores in Vallejo, El Cerrito and Hercules worked side by side with youth and families from the Terrance Kelly Foundation and also from the E M Downer Y after school and sports programs. Together they donned gardening gloves cleaning out the planter beds and filling them with fresh dirt. They put together picnic tables for the youth, placed small planter boxes complete with irrigation along the south fence line filled with strawberry plants and cleaned up the area including pulling weeds. On the west side of the building they cleaned up the landscaped area and covered it with new bark. The crew also installed new landscaping along the outside wall of the gym complete with a drip irrigation system. There was great coverage of the day by the news media and a lot of smiling faces both young and old for a job well done. Obviously, teaching youth to give back to the community is an important part of the Foundation’s work. But it appears that teaching adults about the joy of giving back is also one of the great side benefits.
Mary and the other volunteers at the Foundation have two events coming up to support the important work of the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation: The Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation 4th Annual Golf Tournament which is happening next Saturday June 14 and the 10th Annual Gala Dinner and Auction which will be on August 23rd. If anyone is interested in participating in either of those events you can go to the Foundation website www.TKYF20.org
In a divine way, by showing how to turn a great loss into a great gain, Mary, who was born in North Richmond and attended local schools graduating from Richmond High School, and who came into Terrance’s life when he was 4, has continued with Landrin to keep Terrance’s memory alive by motivating youth from impoverished communities to gain a broader view of the world, enabling those youth to rise above the negative circumstances prevalent in both the community and their lives. Indeed, both Landrin and Mary have through their “perfect efforts” with the Terrance Kelly Foundation helped to make it possible that the spirit of Terrance Kelly lives on in the lives of those many young people that they touch. And so, it is quite fitting, and quite an honor and a privilege for me to say, “Mary Ann Kelly, for the many hours of volunteer work you contribute in our community, the YMCA tonight honors you by presenting you with our Volunteer of the Year Award.”
Ladies and gentlemen, our Rita Davis Volunteer Award Winner for 2014, Mary … Ann … Kelly.
