SHERRY CANNON

If you did not have the opportunity to visit the “What I Need Now In The Ninth Grade” (W.I.N.N.I.N.G) Summer School 7-week program led by Carl Cannon’s ELITE Game-changers team, held at Lincoln School, you missed a treat.

Carl and his team worked with more than 30 eighth-grade students whose only chance of being promoted to the ninth grade was by completing this summer school session. Each day, the students had math, language art and reading comprehension classes. But more importantly they were exposed Monday-Thursday for 6 1/2 hours to men and women who poured hope, life lessons and love into them.

If you did have the privilege of visiting the W.I.N.N.I.N.G Summer School session, the students would have introduced themselves to you, one by one. They would have told you their name, who they were the sons or daughters of, the high school they will be attending, their career aspirations and that they are an eagle.

They would have told you that they were an eagle because of a fable Mr. Cannon shared with them. The story is that when an eaglet was very young, his mother died, and he was raised by chickens. Even though he didn’t look like a chicken, he adopted all the characteristics of a chicken. One day a magnificent eagle was flying over when he saw this young eagle walking among the chickens. The eagle swooped down and asked the young eagle if he knew what he was. The young eagle responded that he was a chicken. The older eagle told him, son you are not a chicken, you are an eagle, and as an eagle you have the ability to soar. It took some convincing by the older eagle to get the young eagle to see who he really was. Eventually, the young eagle began to slowly learn to fly. One day he began to fly, rising higher and higher, until he began to soar, never to walk among the chickens again.

The ELITE team uses this story in every program we have. It’s important that people know that their today need not dictate their tomorrow, and not to be defined by your circumstances.

On Tuesday, July 27, 26 students earned the points they needed to successfully go on to the ninth grade. They received a certificate of completion, at a luncheon attended by parents, Peoria Public School personnel, Park District staff and guests.

The Game-changers will continue supporting the students through-out the school year. They will continue making home visits, monitor grades, attendance and behavior, be a listening ear, and even more important hold the students accountable for the choices they make.

The ELITE Game-changers are an eclectic group led by ex-prison guard Carl Cannon. Many of the game-changers are graduates of the ELITE Re-Entry Program. As Carl often says, who is able to spot booboo the fool, but someone who used to be booboo. There are also teachers who left traditional teaching who make up the team, because they see the value of this non-traditional approach to reaching our young people. These men and women are invaluable to the success of this program. They know how to identify the signs that kids may be dabbling in gangs, dealing with substance abuse, or just need to be told “I got you.”