The Darryl Stingley Youth Foundation

Darien Williams
I admire you for continuing your family’s legacy of investing in the lives of young people! I am honored and privileged to have been a mentee in the Darryl Stingley Youth Foundation Program from 1998 to 2000 while I attended Martin A. Ryerson Elementary School. After attending Ryerson for eleven years, I proceeded to Orr High School and developed a passion for teaching. Thanks to my teachers and mentors, I received $128,000 from the Posse and the Golden Apple Scholars Foundation.

After I graduated from Excel Academy (Orr Campus), I attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received a Bachelors of Arts Degree in History and a Minor in Gender and Women’s Studies. I was accepted at National Louis University to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching through the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) which I will start in June 2010. I am currently an Elementary Tutor and Curriculum Assistant with AUSL at the Morton School of Excellence on the west side of Chicago. One of the best decisions I made was giving my life to Christ on November 5, 2005 and I will be a new member at Evangel World Outreach Center this Sunday. To God be the glory!

I have many great memories of Mr. Darryl Stingley and all the great people who worked with the foundation. What inspired me the most about being a mentee in the Darryl Stingley Youth Foundation was to strive to achieve excellence. Mr. Darryl Stingley’s foundation provided a safe haven and a positive outlet for me and many other children in our journey from childhood to young adolescence. As a mentee, I gained a lot of knowledge and an appreciation for my culture and the world to accomplish great things. The Darryl Stingley Youth Foundation was a big part in the village that raised me for which I am grateful. I will always cherish the hard work, love, and dedication that was invested in me to inspire and uplift my community.

Steve Grogan, New England Patriots 1975-1990
Darryl Stingley was one of the finest teammates I ever had. Not only was he a great athlete and leader, he was full of life and fun. He always came to work with a smile on his face and made others smile too. He loved to play football. It showed in every practice and game he participated in. After his tragic accident, Darryl continued to be the leader that he was meant to be. Although he could have felt sorry for himself, and no one would have blamed him, he decided to give all he had to his community and the children there. Those of us that knew him would not have expected anything else. Darryl was a true inspiration to everyone that came in contact with him.

Russ Francis, Teammate and Best Friend
Darryl use to call me silk. Smoothest white guy he had ever seen he would say. I told him I wasn’t white, but Hawaiian so he could call me brown. I knew why he called me silk then, and I know why he called me silk now. He wanted me to think about being smoother in my running, my routes, my breaks, and then taking it up the field. Catch it, tuck it, turn it up, smoothly and with force. He was the smooth one. So effortlessly, and gracefully streaking like a comet across the lines of the field, ending up with the ball, and then gone. Gone to score, and born to score. He was hope, and dreams, and pure poetry and economy of motion. Not a wasted move.