To understand what's good about a place you have to see it. You have to live it, love it, smell it, and often times it has too become a part of who you are. Those things only take place when you invest yourself in the experience of it. It requires a person to look deep into what some consider the ugliest parts of its' environment. For many that's a difficult stance to take. Primarily, because that type of thought process isn't the average person's reality. Investing all of who you are into an unfamiliar area requires a unmeasurable amount of selflessness.
However, for those that take on the challenge of fostering an undaunted vision, they're now impacting generations beyond their years.
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Day campers dab after a one day football camp hosted by Ringo McKiver and former High Point All-Stars. |
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Corey Dawkins High Point Hornets head basketball coach teaching a basketball skills camp. |
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Coach Marcus Wilson helping with meals after football camp. |
They embrace the bright eyed children with hopes and dreams, they're the gatekeepers of today, and the inspirers of tomorrow. High Point, North Carolina is one of those places with mounds of hidden promise. It's not for a lack of potential or commitment, because for some everything there matters. It's there where the dreams of children are hoisted onto the shoulders of giants. Those giants being former bright eyed children of its' community. They are local sports legends, turned husbands, fathers, and community advocates. They are now men that invest everything into a community that matters. A community that shares a platform of potential, while still divided by resources and perspective.
They are the honorable mention life savers at major ceremonies. They're the food banks for children of hungry communities, they are unofficial social workers, and even firemen when the "house" called children explode. They are the gatekeepers of the other side of the tracks.
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Tony Gibson youth basketball Coach assisting at local basketball camp. |
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Meredith Street basketball court, home of the players that you never knew.
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Unfortunately in many small cities across America, special people and places are ideally confined too one geographical location. Those locations often highlight the end of a person's journey, and not beginning. The images of a city/community should represent it in its' entirety. They should cover every geographical point because everything in it matters. Every crack of concrete shares a story of challenge and success. So while many celebrate the growth and vision of cities like High Point, let us not forget that its' selected prettiest images, should also represent depth and diversity in every form possible. The coaches, the children, the places, and all things High Point matter. Every image and narrative written represents the entire community...
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Washington Street painting. |
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A little girl with big dreams playing basketball at the High Point City Lake gym. |
Everything High Point Matters...
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