By Chris Penrose

Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons left his mark on professional sports as a football player, having played one year for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL, 11 years as a CFL running back for the Toronto Argos and seven years as its head coach. In that time, he achieved three Grey Cup championship titles and multiple records in rushing yards.

It is apparent that he accomplished a lot on the field. But in recent years, the legacy of this athlete has come to be more about his achievements in bettering his community. His work through the Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons Foundation, his role in the Youth Challenge Fund, and his presence as a motivational speaker have solely focused on local issues such as housing, access to technology for youth with limited access, scholarships, and reducing violence through increasing support and opportunities for youth in Toronto.

This all changed with a trip to Uganda in 2006. Arranged by the charity Free the Children, Clemons and his wife went to communities in which donations were being used to build schools abroad. “It took a lot to get us over there because I had a more local mandate,” he admits. “I’m an inside-out guy. No point in being out there parading around in the community, and your family is in shambles.”

While he still holds to that belief, Clemons’ perspective began to shift while in Uganda as he learned what was occurring in other countries and saw how a little bit can do a lot. With the international experience, Clemons’ local focus expanded. “There is so much need locally, but my understanding was broadened to see that my house doesn’t have to be perfect to work in my community, and my community doesn’t have to be perfect to make a contribution internationally. It’s never going to be perfect.”

Working in five African countries, the Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons Foundation has set a goal of raising enough money over five years to build 131 schools, at $8,500 per school. The foundation reports that two years into its goal, it is almost half way there.

In contrast to the typical model, which sees “Western” or “developed” nations going overseas and showing communities what to do, the school building process with Free the Children engages the local people and builds schools in partnership with them to ensure a sense of community ownership. This approach also actualizes the goal of schools being hubs where education, health and micro-finance foster improvement. “In the past, we would come back and the community wouldn’t be using the school because they didn’t think that the school was theirs from the beginning,” Clemons says. That is no longer the case.

Expressing the new sense of vigour this initiative has instilled in him, the former football player reveals, “Little in life has excited me so much.” That leads to the question of whether the valuable work he has done in advocating for the needs of Toronto youth will take a backseat. Clemons answers in the negative. “Part of my goal this year is to be more hands-on locally. I don’t think I’m the guy to go and work over in Africa. We went over there to make sure things were good. Everything sounded good, but you need to go over and check it out.”

And, while the financial disparity between Canada and the countries in which his foundation is building schools is undeniable, Clemons sees more to this familiar story. “The greatest learning is when you go overseas expecting to feel sorry for the conditions people are living in, and you see joy, the sense of community, and how people come together to help each other and to celebrate,” he says. “You have stories over here where people live beside each other for 10 years and don’t know each other.”

A sense of strong community ties is something Clemons believes Canada would greatly benefit from. “As great as this nation is, we can become a greater nation when we find a deeper and stronger understanding of what life is really about. We can build a happier and healthier nation. We can become a kinder nation.”

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