Helping Hand

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Sometimes star athletes looking to make a difference in the community have to search for a cause that strikes a cord with them. There was never any doubt which way Rodney Stuckey would turn.

Which explains why Stuckey was in a Southfield parking lot with an unseasonably hot September sun baking the asphalt, hosting an event for 500 kids getting ready to go back to school, passing out backpacks and Pistons knit hats to those who might not otherwise be able to afford either.

As a kid himself who not so long ago was at a dangerous crossroads, nobody knows better how much difference one caring adult can make in the life of a child who comes into the world without the blessings of a safe and stable home environment where basic needs are always met.

“I’ve been through a lot,” Stuckey said after signing autographs for as long as the line lasted in the basement of Orchards Children's Services of Southfield, an organization that for 48 years has made helping at-risk and underprivileged children its mission. “My childhood … I lost a brother when I was little. I had to grow up at a young age. I had a daughter at a young age, so I had to grow up. Most importantly, I didn’t take school so seriously when I was really little, so when I moved in with my stepmom, she guided me in the right way and here I am now.”

It was Diane McElhinney, the mother of one of Stuckey’s varsity basketball teammates at Kentwood High in suburban Seattle, who reached out to Stuckey’s single mother, Faye, and offered help in whatever fashion the Stuckey family needed it. Eventually, as Rodney and his older brother began spending more and more time hanging out with McElhinney’s son, Matt Taller, and the effects were seen in the dramatic improvement Rodney made academically, Faye agreed that the two Stuckey brothers’ best interests were served by moving into the house a few blocks away in Kent.

“He grew up in very unfortunate circumstances in a family that did the best they could,” said Diane, who remains close with Faye Stuckey and traveled to Michigan with Rodney for the Orchards event, one she helped Rodney select and organize.

“It’s special to Rodney because he knows what it feels like to be a child and go to school and not have a backpack like everybody else,” she said. “When Rodney went to college, we had foster children in the house and he always was very interactive with them, very good with them. He cared about them. I just believe it’s easy for him to put himself in somebody else’s place and want to help.”

“I know when he and my mom started talking about doing something, foster kids was the thing he wanted to focus on,” Talent said. “That’s a big part of this for him.”

For Michael Williams, president and CEO of Orchards, the message he and his staff try to convey to the kids they serve 365 days a year gets turbocharged when it’s delivered by someone beamed into their living rooms wearing a Pistons uniform.

“Athletes sometimes have bad reputations,” Williams said. “He has a great one with us, in our hearts and in our minds. When he says it, it raises the bar for us.”

“I’ve been through a lot of things,” Stuckey said in his address to the kids. “School was not the strongest thing for me. My stepmom took me in during high school and taught me school is most important. Do all the reading you can. Listen to your parents. Listen to your teachers.”

What he didn’t tell them: After having to sit out his freshman season at Eastern Washington – which he chose when he couldn’t get admitted to his first choice, the University of Washington – because his grades didn’t meet NCAA eligibility requirements, Stuckey wound up leaving two years later as an Academic All-American, which he credits to the lessons learned while sitting at the kitchen table with Diane McElhinney for long summer hours making up for lost time in the classroom.

“Education is most important,” he said. “Without it, you’re really not going to be anybody or go anywhere. … Without her, I really wouldn’t know where I would be at right now. She just guided me. Whatever I needed, she helped me through it. This is the reason I’m here – for her.”

Hoping to have the same impact on at least one young life the woman he calls his stepmom had on his not so many years ago.