If you are interested in exposing your students to a remarkable person they will immediately respect and always remember, consider inviting Jason Gibbons to your school or organization.

I have been a school counselor for twenty years and have seen many motivational speakers, but none that have the lasting impact of Jason Gibbons.

For two years Jason Gibbons has come on numerous occasions to the Woodside Elementary School in Topsham, Maine where I am a school counselor. He began by doing a whole school assembly for students K-5 in which he cleverly performed numerous basketball tricks and stunts to lively music, all the while weaving in positive messages about being a successful person, the importance of practice and working toward a goal.  The children were riveted the entire assembly and he immediately became an admired adult for the school community.  He has since done other assemblies, distributed White Shadow self control awards, and visited small groups of at risk students with his positive message. He is obviously committed to being a positive role model and relaying his message, “you can be successful,” to young people, and has been very generous with his time.

What makes Jason Gibbons remarkable is his ability to captivate both large and small student audiences with his tricks, his way of being and his message. Being a professional sports figure, he commands respect and inspires awe in the children, becoming a positive role model and hero.  His basketball tricks and stunts amaze and dazzle.  Best of all, he is a kind and generous man, whose personable way with children and adults is noticeable immediately.   It is evident that he has lived, and now lives the positive messages he communicates to students. He talks to the children about setting goals for the future from a young age, illustrated by his childhood dream to be a professional basketball player. He emphasizes the importance of practice, hard work and determination to achieve goals, and illustrates this as he performs his tricks.  He stresses the importance of staying on the “right road,” making good choices, and serving others, as shown by his own success in the sports world, and his other job working with people with disabilities. The students absolutely love him, and his presence in our school building has an immediate energizing effect on the school climate.

Helene McGlauflin, MEd, LCPC

Counselor

Shadow is one of the up-and-coming dudes that you have to reckon with because you can just sense how much he loves what he does—it emanates off his body and face when he has a ball in his hand! I had the great pleasure of performing with him in front of a very tough New York crowd, and everyone gave it up for him when we walked off. People in the crowd were even asking me, “Who was your man?” He’s on a mission, and has my 100% support.

Bobbito Garcia
Co-Founder
Bounce Magazine

www.bouncemag.com
www.myspace.com/bobbitogarcia
www.youtube.com/user/bobbitogarcia

Dear General Mitchell and Mr. Dulac,
  
I'm writing today, just after a promotion at our elementary school in Topsham, Maine.
  
Several people from the Rockets came to our school, but most of the assembly was conducted by White Shadow.
  
This was an excellent opportunity for our students.  They saw some exceptional basketball skills, some tricks, and some of our students were chosen to participate in the assembly before their peers. (Somehow, some way, some of our most at-risk students were chosen, which was great for their self esteem.)

  
I'm writing today specifically to compliment your organization's choice of White Shadow to be the presenter at this gathering.  His basketball skills, of course, are great.  His enthusiasm was contagious. The kids loved his style.  He was able to get them excited, then calm them down very appropriately.  He was so skilled in getting them from exuberance to silence, and their attention to him when he talked was very impressive.
  
At the end of the promotion assembly, he told them that he had something that he wanted them to listen to very carefully.  White Shadow then spent about ten minutes talking with them from the heart, about some of the most fundamental character traits.  This focus was, for me, unexpected.  I had no idea that he would do this, or how the kids would calm themselves down before they returned to their learning in the classroom.
  
He spoke about respect, honesty, perseverence.  He talked of Michael Jordan's example of courage and continued struggle to be successful.  He told the kids that they would be facing many challenges to make good choices, and how important it was to stand their ground in the face of negative peer pressure, and to be supportive of their friends.
  
For these kids today, White Shadow was a star and a hero.  They listened intently, and he took the opportunity to deliver a message so positive that they will remember it for a long time.
  
I hope that this can always be a part of Harlem Rockets school presentations.  Your team, your organization, should be very proud to be contributing to our kids' needs in this way.  White Shadow is an important part of that mission.
  
Thanks,
  
Michael D. Barrett, school counselor
Woodside School