Author: Celeste McLaughlin

Taylor Blair, a senior at Freedom High in Tampa Palms, recently traveled to Flint, MI, to work with local organizations trying to mitigate the city’s ongoing water crisis and help residents of the area.

Blair was part of a group of 12 students and eight adults from the Ryan Nece Foundation, including founder Ryan Nece and CEO Shelley Sharp, and several board members. Nece, who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beginning in 2002 and was part of team that won Super Bowl XXVII, started the foundation in 2006. Nece was released by the Bucs before the 2008 season, then played for the Detroit Lions for one season. The group from his foundation traveled to Michigan June 12-16 and, in addition to their projects in Flint, the students also volunteered in Detroit, about an hour away.

Blair says the first day in Flint, the group assembled rain barrels that collect and filter rainwater to make it useable for watering gardens. The next day, they delivered the barrels to residents affected by the water crisis and helped in community gardens by weeding and planting.

“It was eye-opening,” Blair says. “It was hard to believe, with all the luxuries that we have in our day-to-day lives, that in other parts of the same country, there are these types of communities where (so many) people are in need.”

Sharp says the students helped citizens and worked on sustainability projects, such as urban gardening. “We worked with a wonderful organization called Edible Flint that encourages gardening,” Sharp explains, including fundraising before the trip to buy all of the materials and supplies for the rain barrels.

Blair says that after two days in Flint, the group spent the next day in Detroit, and she and her fellow students were shocked at the conditions they experienced. “To an extent, some of the conditions were as bad as a third world country,” she explains. “For example, we were in a neighborhood where there weren’t very many grocery stores, because the people are so poor they can’t buy enough food (to support the store). So, we worked with a program called Greening of Detroit that’s helping people to start gardens to grow healthy food.”

Blair was touched by the examples of generosity they saw, such as the woman who appeared to be in need herself, however, “She said that if anyone is hungry, they can come and take something from her garden.”

The trip was the final event in a year of learning and service that Blair and the other students had just completed as part of the Ryan Nece Foundation’s flagship program, called the Student Service Program. “It’s a two-year program for high school juniors and seniors,” explains Sharp, who says students apply at the end of their sophomore year and are chosen based on their leadership skills and commitment to service.

“At the end of their first year, the program culminates with a service learning trip outside of our area,” Sharp adds. “It’s a real eye opener to the needs of the community.”

Blair says she heard about the program through the college and career counselor at her school. “It sounded like it was very similar to my personal interests,” she says. “So, I applied and, fortunately, I got in.”

Blair spent the last year learning about servant leadership and practicing skills she was taught through the Student Service Program at local service projects.

“We focus on leadership and service,” Blair explains. “Every month we have a class where we learn about one of the principals from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (by Sean Covey, 1998). Business leaders from the community come in and teach us skills, and then we do community service projects.”

As a group, Blair says, “We look for opportunities to give back to the community and help people in need, and we talk about the power of giving.”

She says her favorite local project was when the group worked with The Spring of Tampa Bay, a residential facility for victims of domestic violence. “First, we learned about domestic violence with both adults and teens, and how to identify when it’s happening,” Blair says, explaining they were taught how to identify “little red flags” that indicate someone might be a victim of domestic violence. She says the group then worked in The Spring’s thrift shop to provide support to that organization, and filmed a public service announcement about teen dating violence.

Sharp says the highlight of each year is the annual trip outside of the Tampa Bay area. For the past couple of years, the foundation’s trip has been to the Dominican Republic. However, she explains that this year, concerns about the Zika virus prompted the group to plan a trip inside the U.S. instead.

“It was a surprise to learn that we were going to Flint instead of the Dominican Republic, and saddening because we had heard so much about that trip from the students who’ve gone in the past,” says Blair, “but then, we were excited because we would get to help people in a poorer community here in the U.S.”

When asked if the time she spent learning leadership skills and working on service projects was overwhelming for a busy high school student, Blair says, “It wasn’t too time consuming because it was so much fun and so interesting.” She adds that she’ll spend the next year serving as a mentor to the new students who were recently chosen for the program and will continue to participate in the foundation’s service projects.

For more information about the Ryan Nece Foundation, visit RyanNeceFoundation.com.