DOLPHINS’ DRAKE GIVES GIFT OF TIME
Running back brightens lives of kids at Boys & Girls Club
This was Kenyan Drake’s day off. And he could have used it. His calf was wrapped from turf burn. His body was sore. The Dolphins running back was coming off another busy, productive game, this time in a loss to Buffalo.
Drake became the central piece of the Dolphins offense overnight — a revelation in a season without many of them. Now, on this Tuesday off, he stepped out of his car, pulled down the No. 32 aqua jersey and prepared himself for the next game on his schedule. Which was foosball. “You any good?” he said, stepping to the table where a few kids played at the Harold Reitman Boys & Girls Club in Fort Lauderdale.
“Oh, yeah – are you?” an
8-year-old boy answered.
This is what Drake started to do this year. No mention to the team. No corporate setup to better his brand. No checked-off clause like in every pro player’s contract on every team that mandates a few charity appearances, typically set up for them.
Drake walked into the Lester White Boys & Girls Club in Fort Lauderdale this fall and asked if he could help. And he did help there for weeks this season. That was a big club the NFL had pumped money into around the time of the last Super Bowl in South Florida. It had a nice gym, good support for hundreds of youth and ran a smooth operation.
He wanted something different.
“Where can I help more?” Drake asked.
This is how he came to the small club on Broward Boulevard, which he says is close to his Broward home.
“Anything he wants,’’ club director Christine Richardson answered when asked what Drake does do to help. “Just showing up like he does is the main thing. I had a girl say today, ‘Santa heard me – [Drake] came back.’ ”
Time is the most precious gift most athletes can give. It’s the commodity most of us have trouble giving, really. Drake was now decorating Santa hats at a small table with firstgraders. A boy was downloading a game they’d talked about on Drake’s phone. He asked a girl how old she is. Parys Smalls says she’s 6.
“How old are you?” she asks. “I’m 23,’’ Drake answers. “Wow, that’s old,’’ she says.
He laughs. He knows these kids see the Dolphins jersey but they don’t know him. He’s not that big a name. That’s fine, too. He always had a club like this when he was growing up in Atlanta. He saw the way Boys & Girls Clubs helped him. Not with sports. With art. With drama. With making friends. With just getting him off the street.
“Go to the Boys & Girls Club,’’ his father would say those summer days when there was nothing to do.
That’s why he wanted to give back, why he started coming over on off days, why he finished with foosball and Santa hats and now entered a room where a dozen high school kids play pool and video games. They instantly lap against him like waves. They know who he is. They razz him about
Kenyan Drake, Dolphins running back “There’s nothing special I’m doing – just trying to help a little.’’
the loss to Buffalo.
“I like your spirit,’’ Drake says.
And so goes his couple of hours on a day off.
There’s no great moral or overriding theme to this story. Just that it’s the holiday season. And sometimes our sports teams bring gifts to the community beyond a dramatic play or surprising win.
Some are big gifts like Dan Marino starting an international autism center, Alonzo Mourning starting a youth center or Jason Taylor and John Offerdahl continuing with charity programs years after retiring. Many are smaller gifts. Everyday gifts. Ones only a group of impacted kids see.
Like Drake giving his time.
“There’s nothing special I’m doing – just trying to help a little,’’ he said.