OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
link
11/25/05
11/25/05
Tom Archdeacon: Baker lends hand to Dayton's youth
Cleaning the chicken, mashed potatoes and apple pie from their plates had been easy. The lay-up drills and dribbling a basketball left handed under the watchful eye of a former Dayton hoop star had been a little tougher.
But this one was the real test:
You're in a grocery store and you really want that candy bar. You've got no money, but no one is watching, no one will know. What do you do?
"But there might be cameras," nine-year-old Earthan Dowdell offered.
"No, they said no one is watching," 10-year-old Brian "B.J.' Bentley said impatiently.
"But your momma might find out," warned Gregory Watkins, also nine.
"No, they said no one will find out," B.J. said.
"So then you could just take it and have a nice candy bar," Lena Arnold, the adult facilitator of this debate, said with a deceptive matter-of-fact shrug.
"No Ms. Arnold, that'd be wrong!" nine-year-old Natalie Thompson finally blurted. "That's not integrity."
It's safe to say you would not have found another group of Dayton fourth graders sitting around Tuesday evening — as this group did at Carlson Elementary School on Gettysburg Ave. — involved in such a spirited discussion.
And when Arnold asked just what integrity was, it was nine-year-old Brooke Ellington who repeated the definition the group had been given:
"It's who you are when no one is looking."
As the kids wrestled back and forth with the concept — "brain-storming," B.J. called it — all they had to do was turn around they would have found shelter from their storm.
There sat Mark Baker — the reason they were here having this debate — and a pretty good example of integrity in the flesh.
Talk about who you are when no one is looking: Baker and Arnold spend every Tuesday and Thursday evening in the otherwise deserted Carlson gym running one of the city's most unique mentoring programs.
Begun last month, it's called the Greater Dayton Student Athlete Program and it's meant to help young children from the Dayton Public Schools deal with academic problems, social ills, behavioral issues while developing basketball talent and — almost like a second dessert — getting a big helping of love to boot.
Baker hopes to expand the program to 25 fourth graders — five students are in it now — and has made a commitment through his Mark Baker Foundation to work with the youngsters over the next nine years until they graduate and can be helped with a college scholarship.
The 36-year-old Baker relates to the kids because he's a DPS product.
He grew up in a single-parent household in the tough Arlington Courts projects off McCall Ave. That's where he nailed an old bicycle rim to a telephone pole for his first basketball hoop. He went on to lead Dunbar High to the state basketball title and Ohio State to two Big Ten crowns and three NCAA Tournament appearance as a second-team All America guard.
It was during a well-travelled pro career — from the minor leagues in this country and seasons in Italy, Austria and Croatia overseas to a call-up with the Toronto Raptors of the NBA — that he began to give back to his community.
A decade ago he started the Our Father Which Art in Heaven free basketball camp for youth from the city's low-income housing sites. This past summer 287 youngsters took part.
"While that's a good thing, we realized it's not enough to change a culture," Baker said. "We needed to spend more time with kids. I just had to think about so many of the guys I knew who had been great players on Friday and Saturday nights — they'd score 30 and 40 points — but somehow there was a disconnect not just from what's necessary to become a professional athlete, but a productive citizen."
Baker decided to launch his Student Athlete Program with fourth graders because "results show the sooner you can get young people exposed to positives in all aspects of their lives, the better chance they have to make it later on."
The Dayton Public Schools — specifically the administration at Carlson — have helped by providing the site. The program— each evening's 2 1/2-hour session includes a warm meal, the mentoring session and basketball training — is free to fourth graders, though they and their parents must commit to two nights a week for each school year until they graduate.
The Student Athletes Program and the summer camp are funded primarily by the annual Mark Baker Foundation Holiday Gala, which will be held Thursday at the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts.
The evening — beginning at 6 p.m. — includes a dinner and dance, entertainment by Baker's wife and gospel recording artist Tonya Baker and Divinity and a live and silent auction of sports memorabilia and other gifts. Some collectibles up for bid this year include autographed jerseys of Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Carson Palmer, Kobe Bryant, Ken Griffey Jr., Hines Ward, Steve Nash and the yellow shirt of Lance Armstrong. There are autographed footballs by Marvin Lewis, Chad and Rudi Johnson and other things from Tiger Woods, Nancy Lopez and many more athletes.
Tickets are $125 each or corporate tables of 10 cost $1,000. They can be ordered by calling the Foundation at 937 224-9688 or going to the website: www.MarkBakerFoundation.org.
If there is any question as to whether this is money well spent, you only needed to be there Tuesday evening when the kids showed up.
Baker — in a nicely-tailored suit and matching shoes — was waiting for them. The buffet style meal came both with rules — "B.J. take your hood off before you eat," — and plenty of fun and banter.
B.J. claimed his mom, grandmother and great-grandmother could make any kind of food and it tasted good.
"Chitlins?" someone countered.
"Oooh no, that's nasty," B.J, said
Natalie — like Baker — claimed she likes chitlins, but the other kids gave them a thumbs down.
As Natalie was talking, Baker reminded her: "Always look a person in the eye when you're speaking to them."
As the students were finishing their meal, Arnold — the educator who designed the academic curriculum for the program — put out the journals she has each child keeping and told how they all have worked at setting realistic goals for themselves.
"The kids are still feeling their way into this program," she said. "But they know it's something special and they're having a good time and they know we are people who care about them."
There is a lot to be said for in seeing positive adult role models — especially in the case of African-American male like Baker.
That was evident Tuesday when he went of to change from his suit to basketball clothes — "time to turn into Superman," he teased — and B.J. and Gregory were left alone at the table.
As Baker walked away, the two tried to decide exactly what they thought of him:
"He's tall and nice.
"He always got (fancy) shoes, too.
"He's respectful.
"He's very good in basketball
"He must like kids, he does this two times a week.
"I think he likes kids, but I know he's a millionaire. Oh, yeah, you can tell he's very, very rich. He's worth a lot."
That might not be the case, but what he's giving these kids sure is.
Contact Tom Archdeacon at 225-2156.
