EAST ORANGE, NJ — East Orange native and Philadelphia Eagles NFL player Rasul Douglas will host a football camp in conjunction with the Ted R. Green and the Akeem Cares nonprofit foundations at Paul Robeson Stadium on Park Avenue from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 20.
“This year Rasul reached out to the mayor and I and said he wanted to come home and give back to the community,” said Akeem Cunningham, founder of the Akeem Cares Foundation. Cunningham is a firefighter in the East Orange Fire Division and a graduate of East Orange Campus High School, where he served as captain of the school’s state championship football team during his senior year. “We decided a football camp would be a great way to do that.”
Cunningham and Akeem Cares are best known for partnering with the local KFC restaurant to find jobs for eligible young people from the city; hosting an annual community cookout for single mothers in Watsessing Park; and hosting a recent job fair with Mayor Green and the city earlier this year.
Cunningham and a couple of his former North Carolina State University football teammates, Earl Wolff and Dontae Johnson, stopped by former EOCHS head coach Marion Bell’s 11th annual Youth Football Minicamp in 2014. Wolff played safety for the Philadelphia Eagles and started six games in 2013 before injuring his knee and sitting out the remainder of that season to rehabilitate it. Johnson was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2014, and is still with that team.
This year, Cunningham looks forward to working with the mayor and Douglas on this camp.
“All three of us are from this community. We take pride in being from the great city of East Orange,” Cunningham said. “We all believe in giving back and we look forward to making this camp an annual event. Rasul has always had a big heart and passion for helping the people around him. I’m proud to call him a friend and a brother!”
Register to participate in the football camp at Paul Robeson Stadium by visiting rasuldouglasfootballcamp2019.eventbrite.com.
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