LeBron James often tells kids in his mentoring program that if they work hard, good things will happen.
This weekend, that’s coming true.
Friday, the first batch of yard renovations got underway at the homes of some lucky students in James’ Wheels for Education mentoring program. Nine yards in Akron were scheduled for landscaping projects Friday and Saturday, to be followed next week by a home and yard renovation that will be featured on the TV show Rehab Addict.
It’s all part of the Promise Project, an undertaking organized by the LeBron James Family Foundation with the help of an army of partners and volunteers.
More than 90 signed up to work on the yard of a home on West Akron’s Storer Avenue where twins Jade and Melinda Moore live, both participants in the Wheels for Education program. Volunteers labored there Friday to clear a tangle of overgrowth, put up a vinyl fence and even take down a dilapidated garage to make way for a new car port and storage shed.
“My husband tends to make things a big deal,” explained Cathy Erisey, who was signing in volunteers. Her husband, Jon, is chief executive officer of Power Media, the company that was sponsoring the yard makeover.
The project was a multigenerational effort. West Akron resident Emily Scott brought sons Dylan, 7, and Wyatt, 9, to teach them the importance of helping others in need.
Dylan, dressed in a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey bearing James’ No. 23, admitted his main motivation was a little different.
“My mom said I might see LeBron,” he said.
And Wyatt’s reason? “It was either this or mowing the lawn.”
Nevertheless, the two boys jumped into the work, scrubbing siding, sweeping stray gravel and setting fence posts. They also got a good view when volunteers used straps and a skid-steer loader to pull down the garage.
“Dylan, don’t get any ideas. Don’t try this at home!” his mom called across the yard.
“Dang it!” came his reply.
Firefighters help
On nearby Delia Avenue, current and former Akron firefighters were putting the final touches on their yard makeover late Friday morning with help from family members and friends. A few of the firefighters had just gotten off a 24-hour shift that morning, “and still they came out to help us out,” Inspector Sierjie Lash said — all for the benefit of Wheels for Education member Dar Shawn Logan and his family.
Already that morning, the crew had pulled out old shrubs, cut grass, edged landscaping beds, trimmed trees and reseeded some bare patches of lawn, and they were in the process of fixing a backyard fence. They’d also installed new plants, some of them moved from elsewhere in the yard and others provided by Rice’s Nursery in Stark County’s Plain Township, which donated the plants for the yard makeovers.
Todd Webb, a special investigator with the Fire Investigations Unit who lives a few blocks away, showed up to help with sons Malcolm, 19, and Miles, 23.
“I’m their dad. I told them to come help,” he said with a smile. “This is just us giving back, me teaching them to give back.”
Team Irish
In North Akron, meanwhile, Team Irish was sprucing up a yard on Evers Street. The team comprised people associated with James’ alma mater, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, all recruited by Patty Burdon, the school’s public relations manager.
St. V-M alumni Will Landers, owner of Will’s Lawncare, and Brian Kenny, president of Edenscape, teamed up to oversee the project, with muscle provided by the school’s wrestling team. The crew started around 5:30 Friday morning and by lunchtime was well on its way to completing a makeover that included new back steps, a gravel dog run, a patio, a freshly stained front deck and a welcoming bed of easy-care plants.
The star of the crew was Billy Jammel Glass II, the Wheels for Education member who had won the makeover for his family. The reticent Billy, who pitched in on painting and was helping to put out lunch for the crew, pronounced the project “good” and nodded shyly when he was asked whether he was proud of himself for meeting the criteria that earned him eligibility for the project.
Promise Project
The Promise Project is intended as an incentive for participants in the Wheels for Education program, which provides academic support and encouragement to children from third grade on, said Michele Campbell, the foundation’s executive director. It’s also a way to support their families — an aspect that’s important to James, who remembers the struggles his mother faced when he was an adolescent, Campbell said.
The students chosen for the renovation project are all going into sixth grade and entering the program’s I Promise Network. Campbell said they were selected at random from program participants in the Class of 2021 who had met criteria in areas including academics, school attendance and extracurricular activities.
Local companies, institutions and organizations — all of them associated with James in some way — are donating labor and materials to the project, she said. About 525 volunteers are expected to be involved in the landscaping work.
The project continues Saturday with six other yard makeovers scattered around Akron. Then on Sunday, construction begins on the renovation of a home on Rhodes Avenue under the direction of Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict, which airs on the HGTV and DIY networks, and Jack Plas, James’ estate manager.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckABJ and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.