Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 1-4-18

FLORIDA SENTINEL
FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2019
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Santa Loaded His Sleigh To Take Christmas To Football Player
Randall M. Tucker could not make it home to Tampa for Christ- mas, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have the feeling of home. Santa loaded his sleigh with gifts from Tampa and headed to Mis- sissippi.
Tucker is a senior Defensive Lineman for Alcorn State Univer- sity, the SWAC football champi- ons. The history major is the first in his family to attend college. He is expected to graduate in May with hopes of becoming an educa- tor.
An alumnus of Howard W. Blake High School, Tucker rode his bike 20 miles to attend Blake each day and returned home each evening after practice, never miss- ing a day.
“Thank God for the role all souls have played and continue to play in helping young men like
TJ Keys, left, with Randall M. Tucker outside the entrance to Alcorn State University.
Randall achieve their educa- tional and athletic dream. Ran- dall’s commitment and humility is second to none. We have been blessed to witness such a selfless
Randall Tucker (2nd left) is shown with those who rode Santa’s sleigh to get Christmas to him in Mississippi – the Keys family, son, TJ, wife, Bessie Ruth Keys and Tyrone Keys, who is a na- tive of Mississippi and attended college there at Mississippi State.
journey,” Tyrone Keys, founder and president of All Sports Com- munity Service (ASCS).
After graduation from high school, he purchased a one-way
bus ticket to Alcorn State Univer- sity after researching #MegarE- vers.
“Anyone who knows Randall knows his faith, humbleness, and humility would not allow him to tell anyone he would be spending Christmas alone,” Keys said. In the final hour Santa and the an- gels made it through the Nathez Trace to Lorman, Mississippi to insure that Randall would enjoy Christmas, too.
After the enjoyable Christmas meal and gifts he received, Tucker texted this message to Keys: “Hi Mr Keys please thank your mother and your daughter for me because the food was deli- cious and thank you for my Christ- mas present merry Christmas to all of you and your family and have a blessed night Randall Frosty Tucker.”
Professional Step Show Tour To Perform During 2019 Heritage Festival
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
The Stompdown will be held Saturday, January 12, 2019 at the Falk Theater.
When Djaun Ballinger founded The Stompdown in 2017, he had no idea it would take off like it did.
“My mission was to inspire and empower youth in their pur- suit of higher education,” he said. “The Stompdown is a positive community event for all audi- ences with the primary focus on or youth/college students,” he continued. “This platform is used as part of our College Outreach Program to educate and inspire our youth,” he said.
Ballinger said the purpose of The Stompdown is “educating our youth to seek positive direc- tions in life, while offering them a platform to express their gifts and talents through creative per-
formances.”
As part of the 2019 Tampa Bay
Black Heritage Festival, The Stompdown will be showcased at The Falk Theater, 428 W. Kennedy Blvd., (across from Uni- versity of Tampa). Doors open at 7 p. m., and the show starts at 7:30 p. m.
The national step show show- cases teams from middle school, high school and college. It gives youth and college students from all over the nation an outlet to display their art through step and dance.
Ballinger said his goal is to generate enough revenue to give 1 or 2 $1,000 scholarships (per show) for college books to de- serving youth. He also plans to donate proceeds from the shows to a non-profit organization, such as The March of Dimes, The American Cancer Society, or The American Diabetes Association.
Tickets to the event on Janu- ary 12th are still available through www.thestompdown.com.