By Victoria Mejicanos
AFRO Intern
To promote violence prevention and mentor West Baltimore youth, the Easterwood Recreation Center will be hosting a “Fathers in the Hood” basketball tournament as well as a community health and wellness festival on Saturday, June 14.
The health and wellness festival will provide free COVID-19 vaccinations, blood pressure screenings, workshops on diabetes prevention and more, according to Zane Cypress, president of the Omega Baltimore Foundation and director of the Easterwood Recreation Center.
The events are sponsored by the Omega Baltimore Foundation, whose mission is to address and facilitate the mental, physical and spiritual needs of underserved West Baltimore Community residents.
Mike Wilson, a Carver High School alumn has been hosting the basketball tournament at Easterwood Park for the past 13 years. The tournament first started as a simple barbecue to highlight positive Black father figures.
“There was just a stigma for Black fathers in our city, and I just wanted to do something to pay homage to the fathers,” Wilson said.
Ten years ago, he said, the recreation center wasn’t as active. “I just wanted to go back to the grassroots of Baltimore basketball and just have the kids outside on the blacktop.”
He called the event going into its 13th year a “blessing.” During the sixth year is when the collaboration with Omega Baltimore Foundation started. Cypress and Wilson saw they were hosting events on the same day and decided to pool their efforts. They have continued to collaborate ever since. Wilson called the partnership “tremendous.”
Community members planning to attend are encouraged to either donate to Wilson’s CashApp or bring supplies to the event such as water, juices and tents for shade.
“This was the first year that I wasn’t stressed and worrying about how to get things done,” he said. “I’m just grateful and thankful that God continues to choose me to do this.”
He emphasized how important it is to him that the event highlight Black positivity, especially when media coverage is often negative.
“We just want to continue to push positive images of fathers and Black men and our community,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot of good things going on in our community. They gotta come and see.”