North Tulsa Mabee Babies Grow Into Successful Adults

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Robert Meachem is a football star in the Super Bowl. Meachem got his start as a Mabee Baby in North Tulsa.

Sunday, February 7th 2010, 9:23 pm

By: News On 6


By Tara Vreeland, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Tulsa native is in Miami for one of the biggest nights of his life.  New Orleans Saints wide receiver Robert Meachem is a football star in the Super Bowl.

Robert Meachem is a product of Booker T. Washington, but he got his start as a Mabee Baby in north Tulsa.

Meachem grew up playing football in North Tulsa's Boys and Girls Club, fondly referred to as the North Mabee. And this club is very proud to have produced more than just kids with athletic prowess.

The office of the director of the Salvation Army North Mabee Boys and Girls Club is a shrine.

North Mabee Director Jo Bright is like a proud mother. Doctors, lawyers, teachers and journalists have blossomed from the North Mabee. Bright calls them Mabee Babies.

This Super Bowl Sunday, Bright is beaming for a Mabee Baby athlete.

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Robert Meachem is a Mabee Baby. Meachem's photos are displayed on Bright's wall of fame.

"I think we had a great opportunity to lay a great foundation with an individual who had a lot of talent at an early age. Real focused at an early age. You could see it," said Darryl Bright, North Mabee coach.

The club has sent seven players to the NFL. Some have even gone into the NBA and WNBA, respectively.

Also on the wall of fame are newspaper clippings boasting other successful men and women in Tulsa's community.

Among them is Tulsa lawyer Damario Solomon-Simmons. Another Mabee Baby is current Dallas Cowboy Felix Jones.

"Everyone can't be Robert Meachem or Felix Jones and be in the Super Bowl and play football, but everyone can be educated and successful in life," said Damario Solomon-Simmons, a Mabee Baby.

Solomon-Simmons played tackle football for the North Mabee Mustangs. But even after he went on to play for the University of Oklahoma, he returned to the center in the summers to continue training.

"It was a place I could go and feel comfortable. I knew I was highly supported, that Ms. Bright was going to help me out. I knew I could reach my dreams in that particular location," said Damario Solomon-Simmons.

Bright's son Rocky is also a Sooner alum. He works for the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and volunteers as a coach at the club alongside his father. Rocky says the role model legacy is what Mabee Babies strive for.

"That core, it builds a synergy that as a level of excellence that this kind of facility brings out of them," said Rocky Bright, a Mabee Baby.

"We have high expectations. We have high expectations. We say you are going to learn more than just football, learn how to work as a team, how hard work pays off," said Darryl Bright.

And many of the success stories come back as adults to help the Bright's and the volunteers of the North Mabee nurture the next generation of Mabee Babies.

The North Mabee offers other outlets for kids from wrestling and basketball to cheerleading, ballet, piano and a drum line. An ACT preparation tutoring program was started in 1995 to help the kids get into college because Bright says an education is the most important thing you can give a child.

2/5/2010  Related Story: Tulsa Mom Cheering For Son At The Super Bowl

2/7/2010  OKBlitz.com Related Story: How Meachem Made It

 

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