Martavious Odoms and Hope For Pahokee

Submitted by snarling wolverine on

The poster fishdaddy (who doesn't have enough points yet to start a thread) made a great find:

 

http://hopeforpahokee.com/#6e1/custom_plain

 

Hope for Pahokee is a nonprofit to help people in that community.  Odoms has created #EATING to generate resources for community outreach, and says " We ask you to show your support by wearing #EATING to the next home game, the grocery store, to workout, to class, to yoga, or anywhere.  The proceeds from #EATING go directly to community outreach in Pahokee, Fl. Things will change and we will do it together."

 

 

Hagen

March 4th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^

The touchdown celebration was being used by many other schools as well, granted, I didn't see it until I had seen our boys using it. I may have just simply been noticing it more, but I will continue to think our guys started making in popular regardless of it's origin.

Feat of Clay

March 4th, 2012 at 12:05 PM ^

This is a cause that's easy to support and I commend him for starting this.  Just ordered 6 wristbands.

I thought the video was good.   I hope they'll expand the website to include more information in the future.  Obviously we know who Tae is and Pahokee unquestionably needs support.  But IMO it would be even better  to know more specifics about the kinds of programs Hope for Pahokee is running or supporting.  Even just putting numbers on it, like the number of kids in their tutoring programs, the number of families who get health services, etc.  They may not have that information yet but once they get it, I hope they share it. 

PahokeeNation

March 4th, 2012 at 12:46 PM ^

Thanks for posting this. It seems like just yesterday that we got these special individuals from Pahokee and they have really embodied what it means to be a Michigan Man. Hopefully as a Michigan family we can really make a difference. I would also hope that we can continue to get some more outstanding athletes and young men from this city.

Mr. Yost

March 4th, 2012 at 12:49 PM ^

And THIS is why you don't shy away from guys that come from rough background or rough communities.

For every Justin Feagin or Boubacar Cissoko, there is a Martavious Odoms.

Justin and Boo Boo were likely headed to jail or a rough life even if they never attended Michigan.

I'm not saying Odoms was headed down that same path, but I can't guarantee he would've gotten the education, exposure, and tools to help as cause like this.

Odoms got to Michigan, got a great education, and is now doing his best to make it easier on the next guy from his neighborhood. This is what life is about, hope people see the message behind it all.

And in terms of football, IMO, this is why you can't turn your back on these types of kids. You can help them find a vehicle for change in not only their lives...but so many others.

Sione's Flow

March 4th, 2012 at 1:11 PM ^

Great to see this!  I hope everyone on this board and everyone who supports UM does what they can to help this cause.  So glad that Martavious is doing something like this, with the media focusing primarily on what's wrong with sports and athletes today, hopefully they'll devote some time to this story and show what's right with sports and athletes.  Definitely deserves to be called a "Michigan Man"

denardogasm

March 4th, 2012 at 2:04 PM ^

To avoid being accused of taking the wrong thing out of this (which I'm not) here's my thought process leading up to a question.  1. This is awesome.  Odoms is a Michigan Man to make us all proud and I wish all athletes used their influence like this 2. That would be cool if either the University or the team or both got involved in his efforts 3. Selfishly, that would expose us to a lot of great athletes like Martavious in a bad situation down there from a young age. 4. Question: Would getting involved in a charity like that be an NCAA violation if kids wound up playing at your school?  Seems like it shouldn't be, but just about everything is a violation these days, and there could definitely be an unfair advantage built into such a situation.  Just curious, because think about how much good could be done if every college team in the country took on a big project like rebuilding a town like Odoms is trying to do.