[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 172 (Sunday, November 23, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE ST. LOUIS GATEWAY CLASSIC SPORTS FOUNDATION
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HON. WM. LACY CLAY
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Friday, November 21, 2003
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the St. Louis
Gateway Classic Sports Foundation for its commitment to providing
academically average youth in St. Louis with the opportunity to attain
a valuable college education. Since 1998, the St. Louis Gateway Classic
Sports Foundation has striven to even the educational playing field by
giving generously to hard-working students.
The Foundation is sending a clear, unmistakable message to urban
youth that someone does care about them by believing in them and
financially supporting their goals of attaining a valuable college
degree.
Mr. Speaker, it is with great privilege that I recognize the St.
Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation today before Congress. The
Foundation was recently honored in an article published in the
Baltimore Sun. I would like to share this article with my colleagues
which further details its dedication to providing a vital contribution
to our youth by helping to produce an educated society.
[From the Baltimore Sun, Nov. 9, 2003]
Black Scholarship Program Helps ``People in the Middle''; Mo.
Foundation Rewards the Academically Average
(By Mike Bowler)
Don't even dare dream about college, a guidance counselor
warned Leonard Woodson. With your mediocre academic record,
you'll be lucky to survive high school.
The counselor was wrong. It took Woodson an extra semester,
but next month he'll graduate from Lincoln University in
Jefferson City, Mo., with a B average--and no college debt.
All his costs were covered by a St. Louis foundation that
rewards academically average students in financial need.
``It took me two hours to do what my fellow students could
do in an hour, but I learned to survive in the world,'' says
Woodson, 22. Unable to keep up taking notes, he recorded
lectures and played them back in his dorm room.
Woodson is one of about 50 graduates of St. Louis-area high
schools who have received full scholarships to historically
black colleges and universities since 1998. The foundation
raises the money, in part, by sponsoring an annual football
``classic'' between black college teams, devoting the
proceeds to scholarships and other charities.
``Average kids don't get a chance because everybody gives
to the cream of the crop,'' says Earl Wilson Jr., a retired
IBM executive who established the foundation a decade ago.
``It's our way of giving back to the community.''
Wilson, 71, began his IBM career as one of the company's
first black salesmen. He says he understands students in the
middle. ``Myself and many of my colleagues were average
students or worse,'' he says. ``People at the extremes get
help. People in the middle don't.''
Lawrence A. Davis Jr., chancellor of the University of
Arkansas at Pine Bluff, whose Golden Lions play in the annual
fall classic, agrees. ``The world is run by average people,''
he says. ``We reward people who can run fast, jump high and
throw balls through holes. The least we can do is help those
who might not be academic stars but who are willing to work
hard.''
``It's the trickle-up theory,'' says Sylvester Brown Jr., a
columnist for the St. Louis PostDispatch. Brown defends
Wilson against charges from another St. Louis writer that
he's ``creating dumbness'' by so generously supporting less-
than-stellar scholars.
``I'd much rather see Earl spend $10,000 on one scholarship
than give $1,000 scholarships to 10 students,'' says Brown.
``What he's saying by doing it this way is that we have
enough faith in you to support you for four years. You have
no financial worries. All you have to do is focus on being
great.''
The foundation distributes application forms to high school
guidance counselors, and uses radio and print advertising to
get the word out. Winners are chosen by a committee of
educators and others who review the applications and
interview applicants. ``I stay completely out of the
selection process,'' says Wilson. Sixteen recipients are
currently attending college through the program.
Since the foundation began giving scholarships 5 years ago,
the champion recipient is Dedree Smart, 23, who went to
Howard University in Washington. ``I have been so blessed,''
she says. ``There's no way I could have afforded Howard. I
didn't have to worry about anything financially, so I could
concentrate on my grades. I went from a low B average in high
school to graduating magna cum laude.''
Smart earned her degree last year and is back in Missouri,
working as special events coordinator for the State's public
university system. ``I am so elated, so grateful and so proud
of my baby,'' says her mother, Delores Smart.
Wilson says the foundation carefully monitors the
scholarship program. ``The ones who finish college almost
always get better grades'' than they did in high school, he
says.
``These are the late bloomers,'' says Irving Clay, 78, a
former city alderman who sits on the foundation's board. ``I
and Earl, we grew up in tenements about 10 blocks from here.
We all know what it's like to struggle. We know late
bloomers.''
But the scholarship program has had its failures and
setbacks. About 40 percent of recipients have washed out, and
since Smart's graduation, the foundation has dropped Howard
and Virginia's Hampton University because of their high,
private-college tuition.
Then, too, some scholarship recipients ``haven't so much as
said thank you,'' Wilson says. ``That's a real
disappointment.'' He expects them to send him an invitation
when they graduate, and he wants all recipients--and their
parents--to sell tickets to the annual classic.
In addition to the football game, which Wilson estimates
has generated $3.5 million in 10 years, the foundation raises
money through charity golf and high school basketball events.
Last year, it opened a $2.8 million sports complex near
downtown St. Louis that includes a computer laboratory for
after-school tutoring and a ``Walk of Fame'' featuring
prominent local African-Americans.
About 20 percent of foundation revenue comes from corporate
sponsors such as Anheuser-Busch Inc., whose brand name
Budweiser is attached to the football game.
``We raise 80 percent ourselves,'' Wilson says. ``That's
extremely high for a foundation like this. We are all about
self-help. We don't want anyone interfering with our
independence.''
That attitude has rankled some in the St. Louis business
community, says Brown, the newspaper columnist.
``Earl doesn't go begging in the business community, and
that rubs some people the wrong way. He says [racial]
integration is a wonderful thing, but we have to take care of
our own. That's his integrity. Every year, he beats his head
against the wall trying to fill the [Edward Jones] dome,
every year he doesn't do it, and every year he smiles and
says we'll do it next year.''
St. Louis' only historically black institution, Harris-
Stowe State College, doesn't have a football program, so the
Gateway Classic turns to regional schools for the annual
competition. In recent years, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, about
seven hours away by car, has become a permanent contestant,
its opponents rotating among Kentucky State University and
others. The Classic weekend features band competitions,
street parties and lunches with African-American sports
figures.
``It's all generated by Earl,'' says Julius Dix, 74, a
retired St. Louis school administrator who sits on the
selection committee. ``He's a born salesman. He could sell
you anything.''
Davis, the UAPB chancellor, says the annual event is
``really great for our university. We bring in hundreds for
the game. It's great visibility for us and our students. It's
like a second homecoming.''
Several Gateway scholarship students have enrolled at Pine
Bluff, including two with the title Miss Gateway Classic.
These are young women who prevail in a pageant after their
junior year in high school and preside as Miss Gateway
Classic as seniors, making appearances around St. Louis at
foundation-sponsored events.
The pageant is partly a beauty contest [with evening gowns
but not bathing suits] and partly a contest of brains and
poise, says Janell Wallace, the 2002 winner, who is attending
Pine Bluff on a $40,000 Gateway Classic scholarship.
``I had to write an essay and answer questions on current
events. I had to learn etiquette and how to walk and speak
publicly and keep calm. That's helped a lot here,'' she says.
For Wallace, 18, who had never been away from St. Louis for
more than two weeks, college has been ``awesome and at times
scary,'' she says. ``Everything seems a lot bigger. Even the
bugs are bigger. I never killed bugs; that's what you have a
daddy for.''
But classes at UAPB are smaller, she says, than they were
at Hazelwood Central High. In the first couple of months of
school she has become active in student government. She plays
softball, and she has joined the modeling squad, a group that
puts on fashion shows.
``There were a couple of times I wanted to give up and go
home,'' she says. ``But I'm beginning to feel complete now. I
never felt that way in high school.''
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