Stafford, Albom charities give to reopen rec center

Just as Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford continues to bask glow in the glory of being named Pro Bowl MVP, he became another MVP Tuesday -- this time for the city of Detroit's kids.

Stafford and city leaders announced plans to renovate and reopen Detroit's Lipke Park recreation center under a $10-million revitalization plan backed, in part, by Stafford's charity.

Stafford, the six-year NFL veteran, and city leaders hailed the announcement Tuesday as a reversal of Detroit's troubling track record recently of closing rec centers and parks due to budget cuts.

"It's an important part of these children's lives," Stafford said, recalling the coaches and mentors who guided him growing up at rec centers in Dallas. "After school is a huge time for these kids."

Spearheading the project is S.A.Y. Detroit, a nonprofit founded by Free Press columnist Mitch Albom to improve the lives of needy residents.

When it reopens – possibly this fall and renamed the S.A.Y. (Sports, Academics, Youth) Detroit Play Center at Lipke Park – the center on Detroit's northeast side will feature a new football field, soccer fields, an ice rink and a new indoor practice facility. To enjoy the new amenities, students must maintain a 2.5 GPA and acceptable attendance at school. Students who fall short of those benchmarks can participate if they enroll in a tutoring program.

"And playing sports and all that is great," Stafford said. "But if you don't have the grades to get to high school or get into college or whatever it is, they're for naught. So you've got to make sure these kids are getting a balance of athletics, playing for 60 minutes, all that kind of stuff as well as the school programs."

Providing children with after-school activities is critical to their success, said Albom.

Stafford said it was the columnist's influence led him and his charity -- Score7 Charitable Fund -- to get involved in the biggest project in Detroit that Albom's foundation has undertaken.

"I've been to quite a few of the events that he's done," Stafford said. "I do his radiothon every year. Obviously I'm on the radio with him every Monday of the season and I know what kind of work he does.

"And I knew going into this thing that it wasn't going to be done any way but perfect. This guy's going to go all out. Everything he does has a great impact and is run at the top-notch level. I knew he was going to be a great partner in this."

S.A.Y. Detroit, the city of Detroit and Score7 Charitable Fund's combined commitment so far is $2.5 million, of which $675,000 is to come from the city through a mix of state grant funding and money obtained as part of the city's bankruptcy exit plan. The remainder of the $10 million is to come from private donations, a representative of S.A.Y. Detroit said.

"If we don't offer anything to our children, how are they going to grow," Albom said at a news conference inside the Lipke gymnasium alongside Stafford and city leaders.

The Detroit City Council still must approve the public-private partnership to complete the project. The proposal was submitted to the council today.

Under the proposal, the city would lease the rec center and park to S.A.Y. Detroit for $1 for 10 years with lease renewal options. The charity will build and maintain the sports fields and pay for the center's operations and utilities.

Lipke, which closed in October 2013, is one of 15 rec centers the city shut down since 2005. It was slated to be sold to the Salvation Army when Mayor Mike Duggan took office. That plan was strongly opposed by a group of community members who wanted to save Lipke.

Russ Bellant, of the Save Lipke Coalition, said it was an uphill fight to prevent the building's sale. But he credited Duggan with taking the group's concerns seriously.

"All of us in our coalition, including me, are pleased that a youth focused program of substance is being brought into our community, which is sorely in need of such a program," Bellant said.

Indeed, a group of students who attended the announcement today talked about playing basketball, billiards and tag at Lipke before it closed.

Thomas Taylor, an eighth grader at Marion Law Academy, said kids started playing more video games since Lipke closed.

Thomas and his classmates said they look forward to meeting Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, whose future appearance at the center Stafford alluded to during his speech. The center's closure left the community's kids with a void, they agreed.

"They've been missing all the fun in the neighborhood," Thomas said.

The rec center supporters say that will soon change.

"What Mitch said earlier made a whole lot of sense to me," Stafford said. "You can put a ton of money and great infrastructure and restaurants and shopping into the city of Detroit, but we've got to invest in the neighborhoods as well.

"That's something that we're trying to do with this and hopefully it starts from the bottom up, from kids. These kids are going to be living in Detroit one day and hopefully they have great memories here at Lipke."

Contact Joe Guillen: 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @joeguillen.