Ty Thomas' Jefferson Award

[Paydro70]

Maybe this already got posted on here, but I don't remember it, so feel free to lock this thread if it's redundant. Apparently Ty Thomas won the "Nobel Prize for Public Service," the Jefferson Award, for his foundation's work with at-risk students and community outreach programs.

In order to realize the first and foremost objective, TTI established C.A.T.C.H. (Caring and Actively Teaching Children Hope), a youth outreach and retention program targeting at-risk students. The program concentrates on five key initiatives; character and leadership empowerment, educational and technological development, financial and economic literacy, arts and culture, and a healthy mind and body. The first season of C.A.T.C.H. kicked off in June 2009 with 19 students in Baton Rouge.

TTI's second objective is to make a significant and lasting impression in the communities it serves. This is accomplished through a number of community building initiatives. Last November, TTI collaborated with Citadel Broadcasting to host a free Thanksgiving meal for indigent residents of Baton Rouge. Over the Christmas holiday, TTI partnered with the CARA Program to "adopt" a low-income family in Chicago and present them with gifts, food, and a complete apartment renovation. In addition, TTI periodically sponsors, among other things, school supply drives and school uniform giveaways. Although Thomas no longer plays professional basketball in Chicago he still spends time and provides college scholarships to the students at his "adopted" school Crane Prep Tech High School, a public school in the Chicago public school system.

TTI's third objective is to provide funding to organizations with similar goals and initiatives. In 2009, TTI provided monetary and in-kind donations to several non-profit organizations. Some of these included; YWCA Greater Baton Rouge for the Lights on Afterschool Programs, South Baton Rouge Christmas Parade, Chicago 2016 – a bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, The National Down Syndrome Society Charity Event, Mothers of Professional Basketball Players (MPBP), and the Fitzgerald Batiste Benefit Event.

Obviously that's a pretty awesome honor for Tyrus, personally I didn't know about this at all, it makes me proud to have him on the team. Apparently a good part of that fat new contract is going to end up helping the downtrodden.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12652258

[Battery]

Wow I didn't know about this either and I do occasionally try to find out what players do outside the NBA. Very impressive and thanks Paydro for posting this!

I'm really pulling hard for this guy to succeed because so far he's said all the right things after coming over from Chicago. He wants to be coached which is a good thing and he's also praised LB. Who knows maybe TT has a breakout season and becomes dominant on both ends of the floor. If that happens and we find ourselves a capable pg, then perhaps we win 50 games this season.

[BigSlam]

I'm really pulling hard for this guy to succeed because so far he's said all the right things after coming over from Chicago. He wants to be coached which is a good thing and he's also praised LB.

Key Battery.

Here's a kid who came into the NBA young, raw and probably pretty naive which game him a suspect rep. He's transitioning from this uber athletic kid who only wanted to go into the dunk comp once he knew how much he could make which confirmed his suspect rep into a willing student of the game who is thoughtful with his new found fortune who is becoming very easy to root for.

I really hope that Crash takes him under his wing and T2 learns from the great man on and off the court.

T2 does that and the sky is the limit for him.

[Battery]

Here's a kid who came into the NBA young, raw and probably pretty naive which game him a suspect rep. He's transitioning from this uber athletic kid who only wanted to go into the dunk comp once he knew how much he could make which confirmed his suspect rep into a willing student of the game who is thoughtful with his new found fortune who is becoming very easy to root for.

I really hope that Crash takes him under his wing and T2 learns from the great man on and off the court.

T2 does that and the sky is the limit for him.

Yes.

It's a shame though that we see a lot of these young players nowadays believe they don't need coaching once they make it to the NBA. It's very refreshing to see a young player like TT give praise to the coaching staff and tell everyone how much LB has helped improve his entire approach to the game both on and off the court. These are the types of players we can expect MJ to bring to the Bobcats from now on. Coachable players. The NBA is going to be much worse off when LB retires.

[ball teacher]

There was alot of things he did while in Chicago, he's known for his charitable work, an he's won a couple of awards for his work. He even did this last Christmas for a family in Chicago.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PosmCFn60qY[/youtube]

[Walt Cronkite]

I'm happy with the kid.

[SWedd523]

This was actually something that came out not too long after the season ended--I think it was sometime around the time he got that new contract. Either way, it's fantastic that everyone else is catching wind of it because it really shows how much of a positive role model he is. This deserved an hour special, not LeBron's decision.

[Paydro70]

This was actually something that came out not too long after the season ended--I think it was sometime around the time he got that new contract. Either way, it's fantastic that everyone else is catching wind of it because it really shows how much of a positive role model he is. This deserved an hour special, not LeBron's decision.

Yeah the article is from July... I only heard about it now because http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/ mentioned that Nnamdi Asomugha was a fellow winner this year.

I'm just happy to actually make a successful OP, I feel like I never start threads.

[BigSlam]

Locked.















Only joking P.A.Y.D.R.O.

[Paydro70]

At this point I wish we had some graphic design guy to make me a sig of a robot with my user name.

[Jaruff]

Correct me if I'm wrong but hasn't he received this award before? Or a very similar one?

Regardless, it's good to read these stories. If his off-the-court maturity can fully translate to the court, he's going to be special.

[vorbis]

This is fantastic. It's great to see young men like Tyrus take it upon themselves to give back to the community in a meaningful way. TTI's mission statement and objectives are really heartening and go a long way to show that there's a lot more to TT than meets the eye.

I'm always happy to find examples to show people who love to paint all professional athletes with the same brush (the loaded term "thug" is thrown around way too carelessly when talking about NBA players in particular) and this is definitely a solid and lasting case of a man who wants to take advantage of his gifts for the betterment of all.