For more on the Dwight D. and Sheryl H. Howard Foundation, visit their Facebook page or dwight-howard.com.
While one Dwight Howard went on to Orlando, Los Angeles and now Houston to play big-time basketball, another is still in Atlanta and using basketball as a way to minister to kids. Dwight Howard Sr., father of the NBA player that shares his name, runs a Christian-based nonprofit with his wife that offers afterschool mentoring, counseling, and yes, a little hoops. The foundation’s two-week basketball camp in July drew some 300 boys and girls, including several dozen from England. Howard, who directs the athletic programs at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy where his son attended, says basketball is more than a game. “It is a platform that we use to draw a physical body” he says, “but we minster to a kid to get to their spiritual body.”
Q: What is your foundation’s focus?
A: Most of our emphasis is on enriching the lives of young people, mostly through mentoring. We do sports training, basketball and track. We are trying to raise $6 million to renovate a 33,000- square-foot building we will call Hope on the Hill Family Life Center. It is a multi-purpose building in southwest Atlanta that will house our foundation, trainings, medical screenings, a reading center, computer labs, and a fitness center.
Q: Why did you start it?
A: We are a faith-based organization and we wanted a way to minister to kids. We started an afterschool program last year at a local elementary school called “The Heart of a Child.” We’ve also started a program at an alternative school where we mentor students on how to manage their anger, communicate with their family, make great decisions.
Q: Sports is just one aspect of your foundation?
A: Yes. The theme of this year’s basketball camp was “Why Not You?” We talked to the kids about how they can do all things through Christ. We had people come in — a female pilot, a doctor, a pianist, an engineer, etc. They gave a devotion and shared their journeys with the kids.
Q: What does being a female pilot or pianist have to do with basketball?
A: Of the 220 guys at this camp, maybe one might make it to the NBA, maybe. We try to instill in the players that they should not let basketball be their God. It is fine to use it to get to the place that God will have them go.
Q: Has religion always been such a big part of your life?
A: My wife and I both grew up in a church environment and we both were saved in the 1980s. During the early years in our faith walk, we lost seven children to miscarriages. That was a dark, dark moment in our life. Our religion was the only thing that kept us going. When Dwight was born, he was a miracle baby.
Q: How is the foundation going?
A: Well but we are not where we want to be. We need to raise money for our center. A lot of people believe that because my son is an NBA player, I can get on the phone and say, “Send me $2 million. Send me $10 million.” It is not quite that easy.
Q: Why not?
A: I don’t want people to think this is a Dwight thing. This is a God thing. We are trusting God that all the needs will be taken care of.
Q: You and your wife both played basketball. Did you ever dream of being a pro basketball player?
A: I love the game. I grew up in a very small town in South Georgia. I didn’t have as much opportunity to have people to train me when I was growing up.
Q: What’s it like to have a son playing in the NBA?
A: It is a blessing to see your child seek out his dream at an early age and be able to accomplish that dream. He has talent. But it is God’s grace that put him in that position.
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