The Lion’s Roar

June marks a milestone for Alvertis Simmons and his legacy, the Simmons Foundation for Youth and Change. The foundation’s flagship event is the annual Life Skills and Basketball Camp that celebrates its 20^th anniversary with an event addition that hits close to his heart. While the basketball competition between minority youth and law enforcement remains the event’s primary spectator sport, a special day honoring his departed daughter, Tilyn Walker, will also take place.

Through the camp’s life skills schedule that continues to counsel, guide and encourage successive generations of youth towards personal and professional success, the founder and the foundation have realized the goal of upending misplaced perceptions and low expectations that restrict minority communities.

Simmons is widely saluted for his insight and leadership that transformed a vision of friendly competition combined with invaluable instruction into an institution, now entering its third decade. While he spearheads the life skills segment, Coach Rudy Carey has overseen the basketball completion since the camp’s beginning. Minority youth, perhaps more than a few who had warily regarded cops as antagonists, get a close-up encounter with law enforcement on a basketball court rather than in a municipal court.

Simmons observes that the kids often defeat the cops on a court they can control. In the process, the youth realize that police can be amiable allies rather than adversaries. “They’re not being handcuffed by them,” he explains. “It’s not nefarious. They’re engaged.”

The camp isn’t only about basketball. Youth experience invaluable life skills instruction courtesy of not only Simmons, but also guest dignitaries who coach the kids about scoring in their future professional and personal lives. The camp offers guidance on being at the helm of a business or a family that many youth wouldn’t otherwise receive. This year, the camp will debut a mental health segment, bringing important lessons on an often-unspoken factor of future success in the home, community, and on the job.

While the celebratory spirit surrounding the anniversary is palpable when Simmons speaks to Denver Urban Spectrum, he slips at times into a subdued, almost solemn mood and discourse that cast an occasional shadow over his and the foundation’s successes.

Despite the upcoming victory lap, the past two decades haven’t been without trials – and even tragedy. He seems almost nostalgic when recalling the foundation’s meager beginnings, with a nascent staff of three. “Life has changed; we have gotten older,” he reflects.

On the financial front, he relays that the foundation still struggles with securing support. He attributes some of that challenge to his refusal to sell out. “I haven’t sold my soul,” he states. “I won’t sell my soul. They want me to be quiet… my political involvement gets in the way of getting money.”

Staying silent isn’t something he’s willing or able to abide. “I do what I think is right, not what other people think is right,” he asserts.

Demonstrating his passion for political involvement early on, he was one of the lead organizers who led 300 Black men in Denver as part of the Million Man March in October 1995. He shares that story is his book, titled Hold Your Position: Denver’s version of the Million Man March, published in 2000.

Proclaiming his convictions, Simmons lets loose the fire of yore, reminiscent of an August 1996 Westword article that had described the civil rights activist of 30 years ago as “volatile.” Interviewing with Denver’s alt-weekly publication as he left his position as Mayor Wellington Webb’s Neighborhood Watch coordinator, he explained that he intended to battle social ills under his own auspices, foreshadowing his future foundation. “I need to be where I’m not restricted. In the city, I’m restricted. I’m like a thoroughbred horse, ready to race,” he said.

Today, it’s during the subdued and solemn stretches of conversation that Simmons seems more Aurelius than Secretariat. Or a lion in winter rather than a racehorse. He suffered two blows in recent years that dealt painful reminders of life’s fragility. “The last three years have been tough,” he explains.

Double pneumonia and congestive heart failure landed him in the hospital for more than two months. When people like Senator Michael Bennett and other leaders called, he received their show of support and encouragement with gratitude. “It was real,” he reflects. “(They said) get well. We need you.”

Still, the health battle took its toll, he says, nearly prompting him to cancel the camp last year. It also led him to consider his own mortality. “I’m winding down,” he comments, a sobering statement from the fiery activist of decades past with youth, vim, and vinegar on his side.

He also lost his daughter, Tilyn. “I found her dead,” he says. “That hurt me.”

Her loss prompts his desire to express appreciation of his other family members. He makes it a point to not only lament his departed offspring, but highlight his other daughters, Joy Walker and Alicia Gaffney, alongside grandchildren Laurynz Hawkins, T.J. Austin, Jr., and Darnell Gaffney, Jr. as sources of support and success – “my life and soul.” He credits the mother of his children, Betty Simmons, for her early efforts in the foundation, and Lynn Hawkins who initially motivated him to establish the foundation, originally named Safe City Summit.

His appreciation isn’t limited to family. “There have been people who have been with me,” he explains with obvious gratitude. “I appreciate it. I can’t do it alone.”

He fires off a fusillade of benefactors who have made the camp’s 20^th anniversary possible. Simmons and the foundation received emotional, logistical, and financial support from such diverse sources as Wellington and Wilma Webb, businessman Roger Sherman, Colorado Police Officers Foundation Executive Director Frank Gale, Simmons Foundation Senior Staff Director Tanya Diabagte, and Jim Kellogg with the Colorado Rockies. Kellogg “showed me how to tighten up the ship,” instructing him with 501(c) reporting, Simmons says.

The irony of the Colorado Rockies support for a basketball camp isn’t lost on Simmons. However, the goal isn’t unique to a particular sport. It’s about, as he told Denver Urban Spectrum in 2021 when the camp marked its 15^th year, guiding youth into productive and prosperous paths. “I’m hoping to save some lives, man,” he stressed. “That’s really what it amounts to. I hope that these kids understand that when we are not around, it’s about their character.”

The goal remains the same for the 20^th annual Life Skills and Basketball Camp. Today, Simmons highlights five bedrock principles the camp aspires to embed in youths’ psyches, and by extension, their ongoing decisions and actions – love, respect, self-esteem, self-respect, and discipline. He stresses that those five principles will “carry them through life if they use them.”

He posits himself as an example of the principles’ efficacy. He holds a master’s degree in criminal justice. He is also experienced in what he calls street settings, giving him real-world experience. It’s a formidable combination – the combustion of academia and street smarts. He calls it a “balancing act,” one that gives him insight into the challenges and emotions confronted by the youth daily. “I thank God for the opportunity that I’ve been given,” he stresses.

His dedication to community service reaches even further, having given out over 7,000 Turkeys during the Thanksgiving holiday season over the years.

While the occasional melancholic reflections on loss and mortality may make him resemble a lion in winter, the legendary activist of his youth makes a comeback when he speaks about the futures of those yet to reach full bloom. It is in today’s youth that he has discovered his own fountain of youth.

His grandchildren are the upfront, obvious recipients of his interest. However, the hundreds of youth who pass through every camp since inception command both his attention and affection. “I have always been working with kids,” he says.

In 2021, he told Denver Urban Spectrum, “I just hope that when I’m done and gone that my grandsons Laurynz, Tj, and Dj continue with this legacy of the Simmons Foundation Life Skills and Basketball Camp.”

That desire remains the same for Simmons. The family he holds dear still assists with the camp and his life efforts. He still retains the activist spirit, refusing to bend to conformity for gain. Or, as he says, he won’t “shut his mouth” or “look the other way.” He calls it as he sees it – and feels it.

His belief in God gives him the confidence. It’s that belief and faith that endows both the foundation and the camp with something more valuable than money – authenticity. “We don’t have to manufacture anything because everything is real. Everything,” he concludes.

Editor’s Note: The 20^th Annual Simmons Foundation Life Skills Basketball Camp will be held June 8 to 19, at East High School, 1600 City Park Esplanade, Denver. Registration is underway for youth ages 8 to 18. For information, registration, or ways to sponsor or make a donation, call 303-521-7211, email alvertissimmons@yahoo.com, or visit https://sfycbasketballcamp.com.