Monday, December 8, 2008
Updated: December 9, 7:02 PM ET
Hunter giving the gift of education
LAS VEGAS -- Torii Hunter has never forgotten about drive-by shootings in the seventh grade, or the gang life, or when his father stole his signing bonus because of his sick need to buy crack.
Hunter looks back, but never in anger. He looks back but crops the Kodachrome forward, to the future, while appreciating that the forces of his talent, personality and character have helped him devote his life to preventing the derailments he encountered.
"I've been a very lucky man," Hunter says. "I've made a lot of money, and in an ideal world I want every kid to have a real chance -- and a real chance means education, self-esteem and the environment to build character and be free from what so many poor kids can't escape.
"I want kids to have a chance to play sports, and have the opportunity to take those skills as far as they can take them, for enjoyment and perhaps the opportunity to be as fortunate as I've been. But what's most important is education and self-esteem, because education and self-esteem set you free."
In 2006, Hunter started the Torii Hunter Project to help underprivileged kids in his hometown of Pine Bluff, Ark., and various parts of the country. In the meantime, he became involved in the
Heart of a Champion program with its founder, Steve Riach. The program provides a character-developing curriculum to 50,000 students nationwide.
On Tuesday in Las Vegas, Hunter announced "Hunter's Hundred," in which 100 students will be selected to receive four-year college scholarships from 2009 to 2012. The high school graduates will be selected from Pine Bluff, Minneapolis, the Andre Agassi Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, and the Anaheim, Calif., area. Hunter heard about Agassi's academy for athletics and academics, and Hunter's wife, Katrina, toured it. According to Torii, she "was blown away -- and Katrina isn't easily blown away."
Because Hunter has never forgotten, he embraces the reality of a culture with kids in need. The Hunter Project points out that, as recently as 2002, less than 50 percent of high school seniors took a college entrance exam; that 2,478 kids drop out of school daily; and that in the past 25 years, violent crimes committed by youths 17 and younger have doubled.
"It doesn't have to be this way," Hunter says. "We can make this country better. We can't be asking the government or someone else to address problems. We have to do it ourselves. I'm lucky because I got some opportunities, and it's my responsibility to do something with what I'm given."
Hunter hopes that his dreams can expand into many areas of the country. When I mentioned a phenomenal school in Boston called The Epiphany School, Hunter immediately went online to find it.
Check out ToriiHunterProject.com, and appreciate that a star baseball player cares as much as any underpaid social worker does about those who society has left behind. Appreciate that CC Sabathia will take a big chunk of his riches and donate it to kids born into poverty, and that Jimmy Rollins, Gary Sheffield and many others have assumed the social responsibility to make our country better.
This year has seen the relighting of the fires of hope that John F. Kennedy once ignited, typified by his establishment of the Peace Corps. "There's a sense of hope in this country that hasn't been here in my lifetime," Hunter says. "I hope the Torii Hunter Project is one of thousands of urban initiatives where those of us fortunate enough to be able to make a good living can help others have the opportunity we had."
It takes just one look to realize Torii Hunter is one of those people you are proud to know. He's smart, politically aware and caring, and has never forgotten about the gangs and drive-by shootings and the pain of family members with drug problems. He could take his millions, live high in the Anaheim Hills and take the stand that because he fought his way out of the jungle on his own, everyone else should too.
But he doesn't, because he has never forgotten. And because he knows how fortunate he has been, and has devoted his life "to the dream that every kid in this country has a chance."
Some politicians talk about "American values" for their own purposes. Torii Hunter enacts them -- for others.
