CCF Basketball Camp Scores Big
Keeping It Real Basketball Camp participants and staff members gather on the last day of camp.
By Steve Stein
About 30 sixth- through eighth-grade students from Grissom Middle School in Sterling Heights learned about basketball and much more this summer at a no-cost camp designed especially for them.
The Keeping It Real Basketball Camp, an initiative of the Chaldean Community Foundation (CCF) funded by a $18,000 grant from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Legacy Funds, did what its name implied over 10 weeks from June through August.
“We have a working relationship with Grissom. Staff members there selected the boys and girls for the camp,” said Leila Kello, the Foundation’s director of development.
Vince Manna
“While the majority of the kids who attended the camp are Chaldean, it was a diverse group. It was amazing seeing them come together from the first day of camp to the last day of camp. These kids go to the same school, but many didn’t know each other before the camp. So many friendships were created.”
Camp director Vince Manna also noticed the socialization among the camp participants.
“Many of the kids were shy towards each other on the first day of the camp,” he said. “It was wonderful watching them build friendships. That was the best part of the camp.”
Building friendships among the Grissom students was one of the major purposes of the camp.
Besides learning basketball and leadership skills and team building, and having an outlet for physical activity, the camp opened the doors for friendships among students who normally wouldn’t associate with each other.
Camp participants bonded on the basketball court at the CCF campus in Sterling Heights, and they also had fun together while enjoying free snacks in the cantina after each two-hour camp session.
Grissom Principal Elizabeth Iljkoski was impressed with the results of the camp.
“As we welcomed our students back to school, I checked in on the students who participated in the summer basketball camp at the CCF. Their positive interactions with peers was one of the first things I noticed about them,” she said.
“Some who had struggled to make friends or keep friends seemed so much more at ease with their peers. They loved telling me about the basketball camp and what they learned.”
Manna said camp participants started the camp sessions with a mix of basketball skill levels, and uneven knowledge about the game.
“Some of the kids didn’t know anything about basketball,” he said.
While the basketball learning curves varied widely for the camp participants during the summer, the lessons sports can teach applied to all of them.
“Hopefully we provided the kids with skills they can use in their lives,” Manna said. “Things like teamwork, having a common goal, how to handle adversity, and how to work with people with different skill levels.”
Manna is a Bloomfield Hills resident and first-year University of Detroit Mercy law student. He was an appropriate choice to run the basketball camp because his basketball background is impressive for a 23-year-old.
As a player, he was on the 2016 state champion University of Detroit Jesuit High School team that was led by future Michigan State University star Cassius Winston. The following season, in his senior year, Manna was a U-D Jesuit team captain.
He was the head student manager for the University of Kentucky basketball team before graduating in 2021 with a degree in management and marketing.
He’s served internships with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks and Los Angeles-based Creative Arts Agency sports agents’ firm, and he helped the Dominican Republic national team prepare for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
“Running the camp at the CCF was a great opportunity for me to give back to basketball and help kids. I’ve been so blessed because of basketball,” Manna said.
The camp was a family affair for Manna. He was helped by his brother Julian Manna and cousins Shane Manna, Lucas Kello and Luke Ammori. They also live in Bloomfield Hills.
“It was awesome working with my family members,” Manna said. “It created a real family atmosphere at the camp.”
Basketball is a passion in Manna’s family.
Buddy Atchoo of Bloomfield Hills, Manna’s 96-year-old grandfather, was the captain of the basketball team at Baghdad College, a Jesuit high school in Iraq.
Jimmy Yono of Farmington Hills, Manna’s 78-year-old grandfather, played basketball at Detroit Visitation High School, where he earned All-Catholic League and sixth-team All-State honors. He went on to play at Michigan Lutheran College in Detroit and Northern Michigan University.
The Keeping It Real Basketball Camp had its genesis at an eight-week summer 2021 sports sampling camp for the children of immigrant families held at the CCF.
Like the basketball camp, the sampling camp was an important CCF sports initiative.
“The immigrant families CCF serves often don’t have the same opportunities as other families to engage in extra-curricular activities because of financial limitations, lack of transportation, or cultural misunderstandings of the benefits of playing sports,” said Susan Smith, the foundation’s grant writer.
The sampling camp focused on four sports: volleyball, basketball, soccer, and kickball.
After the camp, participants were asked which sport would attract them to other camps. Basketball was the most popular choice, so the CCF set up this summer’s basketball camp.
Each basketball camp participant received a free T-shirt and water bottle. To hear from participants, check out the CCF’s Facebook page.