PeacePlayers US Storybook 2021 - Flipbook - Page 7
2021 UNITED STATES STORYBOOK
2021 UNITED STATES STORYBOOK
SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE
If a split second more had gone by, Omarion Lewis might have walked
right out the door. And with that, a big part of his future might have
gone right along with it.
The then 15-year-old Brooklyn resident was hanging out with his
friends at the Van Dyke Community Center when they noticed a
meeting for a new organization – PeacePlayers – taking place. One of
the people holding the meeting, Sally Nnamani, already knew Omarion
from the center and locked eyes with him as he started to make his exit.
“I looked at Coach Sally,” Lewis said. “And she looked at me. And she
was like, come on, stay. So I stayed.”
A life can change in an instant, and at that second, Omarion’s path
was altered, thanks to an encouraging coach, an intuition that there
was something different about PeacePlayers, and simply being in the
right place at the right time. If Omarion had gone somewhere else that
day or not noticed the meeting taking place, things would have been
very different for him. Perhaps he would not have been selected as a
scholarship recipient for the 2019 NBPA Summer Basketball Camp.
Four years later, Omarion has progressed from being a PeacePlayers
LDP participant to a youth coach who is having the same kind of
impact on young people that Sally, now the PeacePlayers U.S. Director
of Programs and Partnerships, had on him all those years ago. It’s still
hard for him to think about how different things might be if he hadn’t
made that decision to stay in the meeting and get on the PeacePlayers
path.
“It’d be really different,” he said. “I wouldn’t have known about what
they were doing. And I’d just be going about my life not knowing what
the bigger picture is.”
The big picture for Lewis is the same as it is for PeacePlayers Brooklyn,
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which has fought hard to keep kids engaged during the COVID-19
pandemic. In the summer of 2021, after many months of connecting
solely through Zoom calls, a resident-led summer camp was organized
through the Brownsville Community Justice Center. Over 60 young
people came out to two Brownsville locations – Howard Park and the
Dr. Green Playground – for seven weeks of basketball, friendship and
leadership training.
“He’s one of those people that when he walks in, you know this person
has influence in the group,” Sally said. “Omarion really challenged
himself this summer and went from being a quiet leader to a more vocal
leader. You can see it in the relationship that he has been able to develop
with one the younger kids who are part of the leadership development
program, and also the kids at camp this summer. He is a coach’s player.
He is the voice of a coach when the coach is not in the room.”
The camps were led by PeacePlayers Brooklyn Director Alesha Smith
and Program Manager Coach Wray, but Lewis and a few of his pals
– including some who were with him on that important day in 2018 –
were also on hand for their first crack at coaching. The affable Omarion
– easily recognizable by his cheery disposition and ever-present smile
– immediately had an impact on the kids at the camp. One, in particular,
stood out to him.
Maybe in some way David reminded Omarion about himself. “But what
I’ve seen in the last three-four years he’s been in the program is–it’s
taken some time–but he’s found his voice”, Sally shares. “It’s changed
his perspective of people,” she adds. He is more open-minded with new
individuals, and is more intentional about when he uses his voice.
“There was a kid named David, when he got there he was quiet,” Lewis
said. “He wasn’t really trying to interact with anybody. Then he started
getting better. Started interacting with kids. He started getting better
at basketball. He just seemed more outgoing. The key is to get to know
him. Once you get to know him it makes them comfortable. Once they
start to get comfortable they realize, “Oh, I’m here to have fun.” Once
they start having fun, they’re gonna keep on having fun.”
"PeacePlayers is a fun, caring, safe, comfortable
environment for all kids,” Omarion said. “Any age. No
matter how you look, your appearance, we will welcome
you as family. We have a fun way to experience things.
We are here to help you with your problems. Any personal
things you want to get off your chest, we're here for that."
And he intends to keep using it.
And how did it make Omarion feel to have that impact?
“It felt good,” he said.
A humble nature and desire to deflect attention to others is part of the
reason Sally eyed Omarion to join PeacePlayers four years ago. She
knew that those are traits of a potential leader, and as she had watched
him at the Van Dyke Center it was plain to see that Omarion’s friends
viewed him as such.
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