Corey Brewer didn’t have this opportunity as a kid.
Growing up in Portland, Tenn., Brewer never attended a basketball camp hosted by a professional athlete. Instead he spent many of his summers helping his father Ellis, a diabetic, in the tobacco fields of his small hometown near the Tennessee-Kentucky border.
Brewer wanted to give other kids a chance he never had, and it’s a big reason why he decided to host a three-day basketball camp in Gainesville this week.
“It’s always fun to see the kids’ faces, because I know I would’ve been ecstatic to see a pro basketball player,” Brewer said, flashing his signature smile that many UF fans know well.
After winning back-to-back national titles at Florida as part of the group affectionately known as the “Oh-Fours”, Brewer wanted to give back to the Gainesville community and help raise awareness for a disease that hits close to home for him – diabetes.
The former NBA lottery pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves decided a basketball camp would be the best way to do that, and hosted Brewer’s Back 2 Back Youth Basketball Camp at the Santa Fe College gym this week.
About 50 kids attended the three-day camp, where they participated in drills, five-on-five games, contests and had sessions where they were able to ask Brewer questions that ranged from NBA-related matters to what his favorite college team was growing up (the answer is Kentucky), to what he likes to do in his spare time – which is being home with his family.
Not only was Brewer able to give the kids an opportunity he didn’t have during his childhood, but he was also able to team up with Shands Health Care. Proceeds from the camp are going to the Corey Brewer Fight Diabetes Fund at Shands.
“It means a lot to me,” Brewer said. “I feel if I can help one person, it’s better than helping none.”
Both Brewer’s mother, Glenda, and his father suffer from diabetes, so Brewer knows how crippling the disease can be. His dad lost both of his legs – one while Brewer was still in college and the other after Brewer made the jump to the NBA – and just recently lost his vision because of the disease.
Brewer said his diabetes fund was heavily influenced by his family and his personal experiences.
“I know how tough the disease is, so for me it was very important to do something for diabetes,” he said.
Despite what his father has been through, his mother has managed her diabetes well, and still “acts like she’s 25.”
Brewer wants people to know that diabetes is a deadly disease, one that 23.6 million children and adults in America have. But he still wants to show that you can live a healthy life if you take care of the disease properly. That is why aside from raising money to help combat diabetes, Brewer used time at the camp to raise awareness for the campers and advise them to start getting checked for it at a young age.
“I started getting checked when I got to high school,” Brewer said. “I tried to get checked at least every year ... because a lot of people in my family have it. It starts at a young age, I feel, and everybody should get checked.”
