WHEREAS, In today's urban communities, recreation has become a key component in neighborhood anti-violence efforts as well as a tool to promote education. In response to this reality, in 2003, Jon Drummond, an Olympic Track and Field Champion and member of the Overbrook High School Hall of Fame along with Shelton Mercer founded the Jon Drummond Achievement Foundation. As natives of Philadelphia, Jon and Shelton organized the foundation to address some of the most critical developmental issues faced by American youth and their families such as health, fitness, academic achievement and safety; and
WHEREAS, In the summer of 2006, the Jon Drummond Foundation established the Street Games initiative which is an all day sporting event that is centered on families, health, wellness and academic achievement; all of which is done through fun, games, and sporting events. The festival's activities include dodge ball, volleyball, the forty-yard street dash as well as free health and physical screenings; and
WHEREAS, Since its inception, Street Games has involved over two-thousand boys and girls ages six to eighteen. The Street Games Program has emerged as a national turnkey program that engages youth in the process of taking the lessons of traditional play and tuning them into skills they can use for a lifetime; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby honor and acknowledge Jon Drummond, Olympic Track and Field Champion for his work with the Jon Drummond Achievement Foundation and his commitment to sustaining the lives and health of today's youth through the Street Games Initiative.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to founders Jon Drummond and Shelton Mercer as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
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