Group from Belhaven meets, hangs out with Bam Adebayo

Published 3:32 am Saturday, December 28, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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MIAMI — Five Belhaven boys fulfilled a dream of theirs by meeting former Northside High School star and Belhaven native Bam Adebayo.

Za’kari Woods, 13, Kyren Palmer, 11, Michael Cooper, 12, Johnathan Davis-Spruill, 13, and Z’Ymir Nixon, 14, got the chance to join Belhaven Mayor Ricky Credle and others on a trip to Miami on Dec. 19-21. The trip was made possible through Adebayo’s organization Bam, Books & Brotherhood Foundation. The children were selected from the Belhaven Community Afterschool Center.

Foundation Director Marquita McCulley said the trip began on Friday by learning about the business of basketball through a career panel that included Kevin Graves, Adebayo’s business manager and the foundation executive director along with Steve Stowe, vice president and executive director of the Miami Heat Charitable Fund. Saturday involved etiquette training hosted by Rose Hedgemond with the Avenues of Excellence Charm School. It included learning about proper dining and business etiquette.

After that, the group met Adebayo and several other members of the Miami Heat after the team’s game with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

On Sunday, they took a water taxi through downtown Miami and learned about the area and its history. There was a private cooking class hosted by IRL Miami, Early Morning Cooking, who learned about the culinary industry and made their own brunch.

“Bam is a man, who uses his childhood struggle as a source of inspiration,” McCulley said. “His favorite thing to do as a boy was to walk his mother to work. He came into the league with a humanitarian mindset and a philanthropic heart that has impacted thousands to date. The best has yet to come.”

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