The grand opening of the Eric Snow Reading and Learning Center

View Event Photos

By Matthew K. Weiland

THERE ARE FEW THINGS MORE AMERICAN than the neighborhood community center, where families convene, where competition is fostered, where friendships are forged. It is often the hub of neighborhood activity, the home of basketball rhythms and sneaker stampedes, of rising waves of conversation and laughter, the commotion of camaraderie and the captured memories of childhood. In many ways, such centers create extended families of their own, for if indeed it does take a village to raise a child among children, the neighborhood community center becomes the source that guides generations through the phases of adolescence and beyond.

The Edward L. “Peel” Coleman Community Center in Canton, Ohio - already embodying these quintessential qualities hosting after-school programs for elementary, middle and high school students, serving some 500 to 1,000 kids each week - now has a new layer of allure for area youths, the Eric Snow Reading and Learning Center. Unveiled October 11, the center is designed as a haven from the hurly-burly of activity and a Wine and Gold wellspring of inspiration and achievement. The Hall of Fame city native and former Spartan from Michigan State becomes only the eighth player in the NBA to have a center in his name and the honor clearly had an impact on the Cavaliers point guard.

"You're on Eric's team now," Canton mayor Janet Weir Creighton told the capacity crowd of young people. "Eric is leaving each and every one of us a legacy with this Reading and Learning Center. Eric Snow would not be here today if he hadn't had people who nurtured, educated, and raised him. And with this center, he helps us all do the same for you."

THE ERIC SNOW READING AND LEARNING CENTER is the fifth Cavaliers center in Northeast Ohio to be built in the past four years and the second opened in the last month. Snow, following the lead of teammate Drew Gooden, who sponsored the East End Neighborhood House in Cleveland last year, joins NBA ballers Elton Brand, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Kevin Garnett, Corliss Williamson, and Amare Stoudemire in having a center in his name.

The center features a new ceiling grid and light work, new carpeting, a fresh paint job in Cavaliers wine, gold and navy with photo collages of the Cavalier co-captain suspended throughout the room. The center, sporting new furniture and bookshelves, 500 new books, two new televisions and six new Compaq computers, has been a true collaboration on the part of the business community as well. Stephen Coon and Coon Restoration & Sealants Inc. did most of the construction. Gil Reis, who paints the floor at Quicken Loans Arena, donated his time to fashion the murals on the walls using paint contributed by Cavs paint suppliers, Wise Bros. The Cavs donated the carpet with Russell Flooring donating the labor. Wayside Furniture contributed some $10,000 in furniture and Rent-A-Center provided six Compaq computers at a generous discount with the Cavs chipping-in two 30-inch flat screen TVs.

And, like a good old-fashioned countryside barn-raising, construction of the entire project came together and was completed in about 10 days.

WHEN ERIC SNOW STEPPED-UP TO THE PODIUM he was indeed surrounded by family past and present, nuclear and extended, from his mother Suzie and his sisters to his wife, DeShawn, and their sons E.J., Darius and Jarronto. Also in-house were Cavalier Legend Campy Russell, Assistant General Manager Chris Grant and Cavaliers Excutive Vice-President Chad Estis. "I'm truly blessed and I thank God for being here," he said, addressing the young people encircling him. "This right here is how I can help my community."

Eric, who distributed 200 turkeys to Canton-area families last year and who hosted a Father's Day shopping spree earlier this past summer for kids so they could buy gifts for their dads, an extension of his Full Court Fathers program, is no stranger to such community events.

Yet this one was different.

For as Eric thanked his mother and father, his sisters and brothers, his wife and children, all the loved ones who he recognized for having helped him achieve all he has accomplished, the floor captain paused. One of the league's most ferocious defenders, he who in the second-round of the playoffs stymied Chauncey Billups and pushed the pugilistic Pistons to seven grueling games, had to take a minute. The event, the moment, his long journey to this point, all seemed to catch up with him and for a misty instant the poker-faced Canton Bulldog seemed somewhat choked with emotion.

"I was just like you," he said after a time. "Innocent, bright-eyed. That's why I know how important it is to help each other grow. And I hope one day you will come back and help others in your community as well."