Was part of an amazing event called The Role Model Summit In Reno Nevada. About 30 different athletes from The NFL, WNBA, and NBA, traveled around Reno Nevada to various sites and spoke to a wide variety of young people. We broke up into groups of five my group visited a gymnasium full of athletes, a Youth correctional facility, a gifted school, two different high schools, and a center for physically and sexually abused teenagers. It was an amazing experience. We were able to motivate and speak words of encouragement to so many different young people today. We each had our way of communicating with them and thats what made the presentations so special. The last visit to the young people who had been sexually and physically abused was definitely the most difficult. No pictures of that visit are posted out of respect for the kids but they were so young to have gone through some of the things they had gone through. I told them how proud I was of them for having the strength to still be here after what they have experienced and their faces really lit up. It was like nobody had ever told them that before or they never thought of it like that. Obviously they feel ashamed, angered, disgusted, etc but never proud. I told them that they were special and destined for great things and this was a hurdle that they were able to overcome and i had everyone give them a standing ovation. I almost got a little emotional at that visit. The entire experience is one I will never forget.
