Isiah Thomas The Peace League Tournament
Isiah Thomas: The Peace League Tournament and Mary’s Court Makes a
Difference in the Community
As crime spreads rapidly throughout the country in a
great deal of communities around the world and the city of Chicago, there appears
to be a lesser number of people who care about taking a stand to put a stop to
violence and helping our youth, as well as young adults turn their life around for the
better. For many years,
NBA Hall of Famer, Isiah Thomas, has made it his concern and also his effort to
make a positive change against violence in his Westside Chicago hometown
community, while not limiting himself to the world by giving back to at-risk,
economically disadvantaged and underprivileged youth. No doubt, as a former
basketball player, he is still our hero.
Interviewed and written
by Aaron Robinson – Editor
Recently, Isiah Thomas,
co-founder of The Peace League and founder of Mary’s Court Foundation showed
significant support to the Saint Sabina Faith Community as they demonstrated
their Third Annual Peace League which consists of youth basketball games, life
skills classes, mentoring, as well as offers young men the opportunity to take
GED classes, employment training, and participate in internships. Over
the years, Isiah Thomas, Father Pfleger and the people of the community have
come together and observed the results of their work, witnessing a dramatic
drop in violence in the area since The Peace League started.
Over the years, Isiah Thomas has been awarded many
humanitarian awards concerning his community efforts and work. I was granted
another opportunity to speak to the basketball legend regarding The Peace
League, as well as speak about the amazing humanitarian and philanthropist work
in which he has been doing for the community. Always genuine, meek and gracious,
and possessing a heart of giving back, he not only made an impact on my life,
but a tremendous impact
on so many individual’s lives throughout the world.
Aaron Robinson: Hey Isiah, how are you doing?
Isiah Thomas: Hey Aaron, how are you doing?
Aaron: I’m good, I’m good. I just want to thank you again for wanting to pursue
an interview with me.
Isiah: It’s my pleasure!
Aaron: You are the co-founder of The Peace League that helps young men in the
areas of life skills, mentoring, employment training and so on. How did you
become involved with this initiative?
Isiah: Actually, it was 3 years ago, Father Pfleger and I were out on one of
his Friday Annual Peace Walks. He does a peace walk every Friday in the
neighborhood. I joined him on one of his peace walks. On our walk, we ran
across some gang members and the idea occurred to me that I would offer them a
day of peace to come play a game with some of their rival members. And to
Father Pfleger’s surprise and mines, they all said yes. And that’s when the
peace game was born.
Aaron: That’s awesome! The event recently took place over the weekend. For
those who didn’t receive the opportunity to attend, how would you sum it up?
Isiah: It really is a day of love and peace, and just showing the power that
sports and play has when you bring people together. The first year of the peace
game, when we asked all of the rival gangs to come compete against each other,
we had to bus the 14 men because they were afraid to cross territorial boundaries.
Last year and this year, those same brothers who were shooting at each other were
now carpooling to the game. In hearing their experiences regarding where they
are in life, some of them have gone on to college, some of them have
opportunities to go to college and get their GED’s, some of them are working
and they’re also spreading the word throughout the neighborhood about just
loving your brother and caring for your brother, and not necessarily just
looking at your brother as someone to fear - but instead someone to play with.
Aaron: How has your experience been working with Father Pfleger?
Isiah: It’s been good. You know, Father Pfleger is a long time family friend.
He and my mother did things together. Father Pfleger is well known throughout
the Chicago area…definitely is one who lives by his word [in the community] and
has dedicated his life to his word in terms of assisting and helping the poor.
We were a family that were living in poverty; we benefited from some of his
work. So, being a long time family friend I am happy to be able to help in
assisting him in his efforts.
Aaron: Mr. Thomas, what kind of enjoyment do you receive out of helping young
people?
Isiah: The greatest feeling of emotions that you can possibly feel is joy,
just overwhelming joy and a sense of a great feeling when you see a young
sister or young brother finally understand the goodness that they can give to
the world and the goodness that they are in the world - to see that light come
on in their eyes and they turn around and start doing positive things in the
community and wanting to be a part of the positivity that’s going on in the
community. I can tell you, that’s the greatest sense of joy or accomplishment
that I think a human being can feel.
Aaron: The last time we spoke you were continuing to pursue great endeavors
with the Mary’s Court Foundation that also supported the 3rd Annual
Peace League Tournament. Can we expect more community efforts in the future
from this wonderful foundation?
Isiah: Absolutely! The work that we do in the community is our family’s
business that’s been going on for four
years. That’s the business that my mother started; Mary’s Court is part of
living up to her work and traditions. Absolutely, you can expect that from our
family.
Aaron: Through the last years and more it’s been really trying times with the
youth. Do you have any words of encouragement
that you would like to share with deprived or disadvantaged young individuals
in hopes for them to have a greater and brighter future?
Isiah: I will keep preaching this. Education is the pathway. Knowledge is
power. The more you read, write, articulate and express yourself gives you and
your community a voice. That’s the message that our ancestors were fighting
for. That’s the thing that your parents were fighting for - the ability to be
educated in this country. Education gives you the ability to be free. Education
is freedom.
Aaron: Mr. Thomas, before we close the interview, would you like to share
anything that we haven’t mentioned regarding any of your endeavors, The Peace
League, community efforts or so forth?
Isiah: The only endeavor that I am truly committed to and I have always had is
to try to make our community better and that’s what I will continue to do. I
hope others will join us in the fight and in the cause to make our community
better.
Aaron: I just want to thank you again. Last time we spoke you gave me a lot of
encouragement; coming from an individual like yourself, I really want to thank
you again Mr. Thomas.
Isiah: You’re welcome and you keep up the good work and keep spreading the word.
Aaron: Definitely!
For more information on Isiah Thoms and Mary's Court
please visit http://maryscourtfoundation.org/
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