NFL Star Tackling Disparities Dazzles Students at Newark Summer Program

NEWARK — NFL doesn’t just stand for "National Football League," former Seattle Seahawks player Garry Gilliam Jr. said in a speech to about 110 students at the Horizons Newark summer program on Friday.

It also stands for “Not for long,” Gilliam, 33, told students of the pre-K through grade 8 summer program held at the Philips Academy Charter School. That is why Gilliam, the founder and CEO of a real estate development company that transforms vacant properties into “eco-villages,” emphasized the importance of education.

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“Who wants to go to the NFL? Before you go to the NFL, you have to go to college,” Gilliam told the students. “Before you go to college, you have to get good grades.”

Gilliam discussed how, at the age of 8, his mother, a single parent, dropped him off at the Milton Hershey School – a private school in Hershey, Pennsylvania, that serves students from low-income backgrounds.

Although being away from home was initially lonely, he said, learning there laid the foundation for his future. Gilliam went on to Penn State University, where he triple-majored in business development, public relations and advertising – an education that became key after his NFL career ended.

“Life was good, then I got hurt,” he said. “I blew my whole knee out.”

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So, he asked himself what business he could develop that would solve a problem. He came up with The Bridge .

“We buy abandoned schools, malls, shopping centers, warehouses, land, and we convert them to what we call an ‘eco-village,’ ” Gilliam said. “Eco-village is an ecosystem. You buy these houses, and you create places to work, eat, live, learn and play.”

A website for his firm talks about creating sustainable mixed-used communities that include affordable housing, agriculture, education centers and entertainment venues. Speaking to the students, he listed cities across the U.S., and said the goal is to combat systemic oppression.

The Bridge, he said, works with his nonprofit.

“That’s not enough to just build a physical infrastructure and think that something good is going to come out of it, so I created a nonprofit called the Empower at The Bridge Foundation,” he said.

Gilliam told TAPinto Newark that he has a project underway for Brick City. “We’re working on getting one out there,” he said. “I can’t tell you much more than that.”

Newark, he said, fits the description of areas The Bridge seeks to develop, including having low homeownership rates , being a food desert and having a low-ranking school district .

“All of those things are what draw us as a development company into an area,” Gilliam said. “So that we can solve those disparities with the programs that we have.”

Students cheered Gilliam, yelling “Garry! Garry! Garry!” in unison. After the discussion, Gilliam signed autographs and snapped selfies with students.

Aubrei Collins, 11, of Newark, came away with a message about perseverance.

“I enjoyed how motivating and encouraging he was about telling the stories and how he motivates people to never give up when they’re going through hard times,” Collins said.

Horizons Newark Executive Director Joanna Carroll said the talk given by the 6-foot, 6-inch-tall football star fits into the theme for the six-week summer program, which serves families who demonstrate financial need. That theme is “inspiring, building, transforming ourselves to create a better community,” Carroll said.

Students of the summer program are learning about urban farming and cultivating a rooftop garden, part of an effort to combat the urban heat island effect that also addresses living in a food desert – lessons that tie into Gilliam’s work, she said.

“Having him here just as a figure is one thing, but also important is the mission of what he does: giving back to the communities he is a part of,” Carroll said.

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