LYNN — Ebony White knows something about the power of second chances.
On Wednesday, the nonprofit administrator delivered a message of hope to students at a Stop the Violence program at Thurgood Marshall Middle School. Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy (LYSOA) sponsored the program.
“When I was 12, my parents were sent to jail,” she said. “I didn’t ask for that to happen to me, but I had a choice: I could go down the wrong path or take that negative energy and turn it into something positive, and that’s the path I chose.”
Founded in 2014 by Rob Smith and a handful of friends at the Dunkin’ Donuts on the Lynnway, the city’s “Stop the Violence” organization’s mission is to steer the city’s youth away from violence. The nonprofit holds events year round to get their message to youngsters.
White said one thing that rescued her was basketball.
“That sport saved me,” she told the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. “I avoided gangs, peer pressure, I was OK with being different, and I vowed to attend college.”
Being a female basketball player was a lonely choice when she was in high school, White said. But when she felt sad, she grabbed a basketball and shot hoops for hours.
It paid off. White became the first female student at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute to score 1,000 points.
“It’s been a journey,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t matter. You do and you have to believe in yourself.”
White was followed by Anthony Seaforth, founder of the No Ceilings Movement. The academic mentoring program for high school athletes was created to boost college attendance by providing tutoring and social support.
The Marshall Middle School graduate said while in elementary school, he was an A and B student. But he didn’t do so well as a middle schooler and was being pulled in different directions.
Like White, he too excelled at basketball and made his high school team. But he was later dropped because his academics were not good enough.
“That the decision to drop me from the team kicked me into gear to improve my studies,” he said.
As a result, his grades improved and he would later graduate from Bentley University.
“Instead of coming up with shoulda, coulda, woulda excuses, I promised myself I would improve, and you can too.”
