SEEN Porter-Billups Leadership Academy Gala
Lonnie Porter. Chauncey Billups. Tyronn Lue.
Each of them rose from humble beginnings to achieve the success of which dreams are made: Porter as the winningest college basketball coach in Colorado history and one of only 12 active coaches to have reached 500 career wins; Billups as a former National Basketball Association All-Star who is now serving as an NBA analyst for ESPN, and Lue as a point guard who helped take the Los Angeles Lakers to two NBA championships before being named head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. On June 19, 2016, the rookie head coach led the Cavs to their first NBA championship.
The three longtime friends are also excellent role models for the 178 youngsters enrolled in the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy. Billups, a Denver native, became actively involved in the summer program that Porter and his daughter, Denver’s 2007 Teacher of the Year Staci Porter-Bentley, started in 1996 on the campus of Regis University.
Lue, who has been best friends with Billups since they met as teenagers while playing in an AAU tournament in California, was the keynote speaker for the PBLA’s fundraising gala held July 22 at the Ritz-Carlton Denver.
“We were 16 or 17,” Lue recalled. “I talked a lot of trash, and he was a lowkey guy, but we hit it off and have been best friends since that day.”
In a question-and-answer presentation led by mistress of ceremonies Susie Wargin, Lue recalled growing up in a small town — Mexico, Mo. — and having the good fortune to have been able to parlay his skill on the basketball court into a career that others can only dream of.
Still, he encouraged the young people in the audience to “Be who you are because not everyone can be a doctor, a lawyer or in the NBA. If your talent is fixing cars, be the best mechanic you can be. We all have choices, so be sure you make the right ones.”
Porter and his daughter started what is now the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy in 1996. For three weeks that summer, 22 elementary school-aged children from the inner city received training in leadership skills, critical thinking, teamwork and conflict resolution in classes held on the Regis University campus.
Billups joined Porter and his daughter in 2006, working to help them achieve their goal of helping at-risk kids see education as a path to success.
Today, the PBLA has 178 students, and 98.5 percent of the 135 PBLA alumni have graduated from high school on schedule. Members of the PBLA Class of 2016 graduated with an average GPA of 3.1 and an average ACT score of 20. Approximately 79 percent of the PBLA alums have pursued some form of post-secondary education; 26 have received degrees from Regis University.
“We had such a grand vision for this,” Lonnie Porter said. “We wanted to replace the cycle of poverty with the opportunity of a college education. It’s humbling to see how far we have come.”
PBLA graduates, Staci Porter-Bentley noted, have gone on to become Denver police officers, nurses, educators and medical doctors. “We helped take care of them and now they’re the ones who are going to be taking care of us.”
Since 2002 the PBLA has awarded 56 scholarships, totaling $2 million, for post-secondary education. The 2017 MillerCoors Scholarship, a $5,000 grant, went to Jose Sanchez, a PBLA alum who is majoring in chemistry at Regis with the goal of becoming a doctor.
Gloria Schoch, the company’s public affairs manager, presented the scholarship to Sanchez.
She was at the gala with her husband, Sean Walsh, joining a crowd that also included Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and his wife, Mary Louise Lee; and Randy Holliday and Donna Ogorek, co-chairs of the PBLA advisory board.
Panorama Orthopedic and Spine Center, Shortline Auto Group and Sooper Credit Union were the gala’s presenting sponsors. Panorama’s Dr. Mitchell Seemann presented the PBLA with a check for $60,735, representing pro- ceeds from an annual golf tournament, while Shortline’s Don and Laurie Hicks gave the PBLA a check for $32,817, money generated from one of their dealership sales promotions.
Others taking part in the festivities were federal judge Wiley Daniel and his wife, Ida; Ryan Ross, president/CEO of the Urban Leadership Foundation of Colorado, and his wife, Simone, an executive with Delta Dental; Jim Pinto, founder of Red Rocks Law; Marti Awad, founding partner of Cardan Capital Partners; Bill Fortune; Faye and Dr. Reginald Washington; Eula Adams; Barbara and Chuck Williams; Alicia Harvey; Aquilla McKnight; Gloria Neal and Amani Ali; Wil and Roz Alston; and Willie Kellum and Dr. Beverly Anderson, who were honored for their longstanding support of the PBLA.