- May 6, 2024
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At the suggestion of a Major League Baseball player, Bunnell’s Eric Williams started a Flagler mentoring foundation for kids.
Growing up, 23-year-old Bunnell native Eric Williams spent almost every afternoon at the Carver Gym. Today, he cites the center and its volunteers as the inspiration for his own philanthropic work, which will kick off locally as the Fearless Leaders program, Jan. 31, when he makes a presentation to a business class at Flagler Palm Coast High School.
The presentation will be followed by Tuesday/Thursday after-school mentor sessions at the school, which he envisions spreading throughout the district, to raise the county’s graduation rate, as well as the number of those who go on to college.
“Goals will be a big thing,” Williams said. Through the program, he plans to help students with their homework and SAT prep, offer achievement incentives, help with college applications, raise money for trips and, most of all, be a positive presence in students’ lives.
“I’m younger. I’ve been through it,” he said. “Most people don’t want to talk to someone (they) can’t relate to. … I can relate to them.”
It was at Carver Gym where Williams first met “Pop,” a volunteer from the neighborhood who liked his swing and encouraged him to play baseball. Pop also took Williams and others on field trips, to Daytona Cubs and Orlando Magic games.
These trips, Williams says, changed his whole point of view.
“I was just always into sports, and sports and sports,” Williams said, citing participation in basketball, football, baseball and soccer leagues. “I always used sports as my way of not being on the streets.”
But in school, his test scores started suffering. He had a 2.2 grade point average, and he remembers one of his high school coaches sitting him down and telling him that if he wanted to play college ball, he better improve.
By graduation, William’s GPA was up to 3.5. His freshman year in college, he batted .374, a team high.
“The friends I started with — I’m only friends with one of them now,” he continued. “They’re all in jail, or did drugs. And that’s not the road I wanted to go down. … It’s a choice. I made a choice not to be out doing those types of activities.”
At college, in Tampa and then West Palm Beach, Williams began volunteering for weekend youth leagues and as a campus guide/mentor. During one weekend session, Minnesota Twins centerfielder Denard Span, who was also volunteering, watched Williams encourage a younger player to continue with the piano, even though his friends told him it was cooler to play football.
He suggested Williams start a youth foundation.
“There’s going to be doubters no matter what anybody does,” Williams told the kid. “So just be you.”
That’s the push behind the Fearless Leaders program. It’s not enough these days to graduate high school, he added. “You need to care (about college),” he said, so that you can go on to do something substantial, to be your own boss.
“Whatever it is you want to do, you want to be the owner of it,” he said.
Fresh out of college, Williams took a job at a Dairy Queen. Today, he’s working independently as a salesman for LINX2Funds, a nonprofit subsidiary of 5LINX, the telecommunications/energy provider.
He has been helping out in Flagler Palm Coast High’s extracurriculars and will start working with the school’s principal next week to iron out the logistics of his program.
Set goals, improve yourself, take control — that’s Williams’ message.
“I’m just a normal kid, just like the (students) are. My GPA was 2.2. I didn’t have any guidance, no goals. … But you can change that, and transform it into something good,” he added. “Step up to the plate right now. Get this done.”
For more, email [email protected].
Email Mike Cavaliere at [email protected].
