32Sports recently presented to St. Michaels Elementary, Middle and High Schools during Mental Health Awareness Month. Pictured left to right are athletes Tajiel Wesley – Stevenson University (Basketball), Matthew McDonald – Howard University (Football), Beth Anne Dorman, President and CEO of For All Seasons; Imani Dawson – University of Maryland Baltimore County (Softball); Jasmin DeJesus (32Sports), and Matt Lawrence, former NFL player and founder of 32Sports.
In observance of Mental Health Awareness Month, For All Seasons, in partnership with the Talbot County Public Schools, collaborated with Matt Lawrence, former NFL player and founder of 32Sports, to host assemblies focused on mental health, wellness, and resilience at St. Michaels Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. Through personal stories, candid discussions, and messages of hope, Lawrence inspired students to navigate life’s challenges with strength, fostering a supportive community culture that champions mental well-being for all. With the knowledge that 1 in 5 youth face mental health challenges, For All Seasons is eager to spread messages of hope, and help youth build resiliency through programs like 32Sports.
Lawrence shared that his parents were role models and always in service to help the next person. When he finished playing for the Ravens due to a career- and life-changing concussion, he decided to stay in Baltimore to help address the needs of children there. “I always said we can use our platform as athletes for a purpose. Our mission is bridging pro athletes to sports and the kids soak it in,” Lawrence reflected.
Lawrence introduced the presentation’s theme to the first group of students, in second through fifth grades, stating, “The theme for today is we want to see the sunshine through the clouds. Everybody has clouds in their life. Everybody has things that they don’t necessarily like that are distracting them from what they need to be doing.”
“When I was your age, I was not the super-duper NFL Baltimore Raven. So, step by step, we walk and talk to get to where we want to be. We have dreams, but we need to do homework and things we may not like to do to get to our dreams. We have to look through the clouds and look at the sunshine.”
Throughout the presentation, Lawrence repeatedly asked kids to repeat the phrase, “I can do hard things.”
The students played a game where they had to throw the tennis balls into the buckets and the first group to get 10 tennis balls in their bucket won. The audience made a lot of noise while they were playing the game as a distraction. Afterwards, he shared with the kids, “When we try hard things sometimes there’s a lot of noise in the background. There’s a lot of clouds in the background. And we can’t focus on what we’re trying to do.”
The next game with the tennis balls focused on how to use the community (Lawrence’s helpers) to accomplish the same task of getting the balls in the bucket. He added, “So when we have big problems – when we have big clouds in our life, we still have community. Community can’t see the clouds in our life and the clouds can’t see your community.”
“Sometimes we try to do everything by ourselves and we can get exhausted. So, when you get exhausted, you call your community and they will come to your rescue.”
He reminded students that they have options – to use the help of their community could mean asking their parents, counselors, or the staff at For All Seasons for help.
In a question-and-answer period, one of the questions was about his struggles as a football player. He shared, “The biggest struggle came when I was your age, and people didn’t think I was good at football yet. So, the struggle was I wanted to quit because I wasn’t good enough. My parents said, ‘You can’t quit, you have to see it through. You can’t quit because you can do hard things. We know it’s hard for you, but it will get easier.’”
He concluded, “The best thing about playing professional sports is being able to come to schools like this and help you guys out every single day. I’ve learned a lot of things and now I can help you guys learn them sooner rather than later.”
For All Seasons, Inc. is the only behavioral health and rape crisis center in Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Talbot, and Dorchester Counties – nearly a quarter of the state’s geographic area. For All Seasons is a critical safety net for Marylanders. Last year, the agency served 3,000 people with over 50,000 life-saving therapy, psychiatry, and sexual assault victim support services. Its trauma-certified mental health services include individual and group therapy; general, child and adolescent therapy; marriage and couples’ counseling; grief counseling; school-based mental health therapy; rape crisis response and support; 24-Hour English and Spanish
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