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June 5th and 6th, 2009
After four successful years of Charging Forward, Miami Dolphin Wide Receiver Greg Camarillo and his brother Jeff Camarillo, a nine year veteran educator of Compton public schools, decided to host a reunion trip for the long standing Charging Forward student athletes.
15 young men, all from Compton or South Central Los Angeles, ranging in age from current 8th graders to high school juniors, were treated to a once in a lifetime trip down to San Diego. The group arrived at the Sheraton Suites in the Gaslamp District of San Diego, where they stayed 3 young men to a suite. After a quick lesson on hotel etiquette, including a discussion about the cost of eating hotel candy from the mini-bar, the group headed out for the Padres vs the Diamondbacks baseball game, where they were treated to seats in the all-you-can-eat section of the stadium!
There, a hot dog eating contest ensued, and the winner Ja’vunte received an autographed Greg Camarillo jersey for his group leading nine hot dogs. With 15 stuffed bellies and a tremendous evening of fun behind us, the Charging Forward boys headed back to the hotel and went for a pleasant late evening stroll through the Gaslamp. We did some shopping, walked the streets and familiarized the young men with the Gaslamp District.
After a wonderful night sleep, we woke up to an exquisite breakfast buffet at the Sheraton. At breakfast, we celebrated the 16th birthday of Leequan Thornton, a cornerback of the Dominguez High School Dons, who has maintained a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.6 and has worked closely with Charging Forward for the past four years. Leequan, and several of his middle school classmates from their 8th grade class of 2007, including Tony Bell of Locke High School and Dwaine Jackson and Carlos Villa of Centennial High School now serve as Charging Forward mentors. As high school juniors and successful varsity student-athletes, Charging Forward helps link these young men with current middle school student athletes in the city of Compton to provide them guidance and insight as to how to become successful high school student athletes.
Essentially, Charging Forward has created young teenage mentors from within our program that help us effectively carry out our mission statement with our younger student-athletes. To witness these young mentors at work is truly gratifying and amazing. Our current 8th graders look up to no one more than the student athletes from their community who have come before them and are now dynamic high school student athletes. Stay tuned for more of these types of events from Charging Forward in the near future and be on the lookout for San Diego Charger and Los Angeles Clipper events in the 2009-10 academic year!!!
Click on the photo to enlarge
| Student-Athletes at the Padres Game |
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