Follow Our Oakland Youth!
The founding principle of Oakland Lacrosse Club (OLC) is unconditional love. While our method to engage youth introduces them to a sport not traditionally exposed to their community, our purpose is to give them an environment where caring people help them develop lifelong skills: leadership, teamwork, work- life balance, healthy living through exercise and nutrition, and using competition to manage success and cope with loss. When we are at our best, this diverse community of peers, coaches, educators, and families challenge and encourage our young people to become the best version of themselves. The recent killing of George Floyd at the hands of police is a stark reminder that despite our efforts, many youth and families in our community will remain at risk and may not reach their full potential until the systems that restrict them are changed. Recent events show this includes not just our system of public safety, but housing, education, and healthcare as well.
Addressing all of these problems can be daunting. Yet what gives Oakland Lacrosse hope, inspiration, and purpose are the lessons youth take back to the Oakland community. Yesterday, a group of students from Oakland Tech, the school that four decades ago pushed to establish Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday and our first partnered high school, organized a civil protest, bringing together 15,000 people from every walk of life in our community. Rich and poor, young and old, people of color and white participated in this peaceful protest. Just like our Oakland Lacrosse community, they were diverse, engaged, and showed acts of compassion. On our girls high school team, Taylor, a 10th grader, made sure that Alesy, a recent immigrant to the United States, got to practice by riding the bus with her to the field. Cesar, an 8th grader, provided translations in Spanish so that a group of new players and their families could fill out the forms to join our program. Clyde, a 6th grader, offered rides home to Nirali so she got home safely. All of the acts came from empathy and recognizing humanity in one another. We are proud to say that there are countless others, many of which have come out of the ashes of Covid-19. The love that we share is replicated in the actions of the youth, and they have shown great capacity in being present for the least supported in our community, time after time.
If you support our mission, please follow the lead of our youth to meet this moment. Speak to others of your concerns. Share our story. Get involved. Inquire about public safety policies and influence police reform in your neighborhood. Give to your favorite non profit, volunteer to Covid-Relief efforts. Help create an Oakland where all of us can be safe.
Finally, we need to call out systemic racism and change the status quo to protect black and brown lives. The last week has been hard. Yet our OLC family shows that where there is connection, community, and caring, it is possible to change hearts. Let’s all work collectively so that this generation can thrive, and the violence against our own citizens, like Covid, becomes a memory.
Thank You,
Harold Lowe, Chairman of the Board, Oakland Lacrosse Club
Kevin Kelley, Founder/Executive Director, Oakland Lacrosse Club