[VIDEO] The Rising Stars Foundation, started by Cleveland Browns safety Mike Adams and Arizona Cardinals linebacker Gerald Hayes, held its fifth annual Youth Football Camp on Passaic County Technical School. Adams and Hayes led the camp along with New York Jets cornerback Kyle Wilson and New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz. Professional boxer Kendall Holt was also in attendance.
All four players grew up in the area, so they were more then happy to give back to the local elementary and middle school students by helping hone their skills on the field and teach them some lessons that they could take off the field.
“It’s very important, because I know what they’ve been through, and I’ve been there before,” Mike Adams said of working with the Paterson students. “I have seven brothers and sisters and we stayed in one apartment, and now we’re staying in a house. I know what it’s like to be in their situation, so I can relate to these kids really well.”
The camp began at 9 a.m. and the kids moved from one station to another, each consisting of different drills led by players and volunteer coaches. They got a chance to have some fun while learning valuable football skills and life lessons from the players, who are essentially walking examples that success can come out of Paterson.
“The most important lesson for them to learn is that they can become anything,” Adams said. “There’s a lot of negativity going on in Paterson, but we do have successful people coming out of this town. We want them to make the right choice when it’s time, because at some point in each of their lives, they will have a choice to make.”
Kyle Wilson, a first round draft pick of the Jets last year, agreed that it was important for the kids to see successful people who grew up in the area. Wilson said that “the biggest lesson for them to learn is that we were in their shoes one day, and that whatever their dreams and aspirations are; they can achieve them if they put their mind to it.”
Adams and Hayes grew up together in Paterson, both playing for Passaic County Technical Institute. Now that they’ve made it to the NFL, they want to give Paterson students opportunities that they didn’t have growing up in the area. “We always talked about giving back, and now we have the opportunity to give back,” Hayes said. “We ended up blossoming from the foundation into a couple camps and all-star games, and it rose from there.”
The foundation aims to help inner city kids and give them structure in order to push them in the right direction. Adams is focused on the foundation’s future as well, as he said that the “short-term goals are to continue to let the kids have social and athletic abilities and instill that in them. Down the road, we want to get a community center built up and hopefully have Rising Stars go national.”
The camp was followed by a block party on Adams’ street, a celebration for the event reaching its fifth year. From a bouncing castle, to a volleyball court, to tons of food, there was plenty for the kids to do following their hard work on the field.
For more information on the Rising Stars Foundation and any other events they have coming up, check out http://www.rising-starsfoundation.org/.
