Darnell's Story: 2022 Legacy Award Winner

There was one house there was a ton of activity it was alive and that was the Banks family It's the first time that I ever met Darnell Cooper. Darnell was one of those guys that he gave you that look, “Hey I don't know who you are but I don't want anything to do with you.” He was a 15 year old sophomore in high school, a great football player. One of the things that we began to do was we threw this huge block party and then we would have some of the most epic throwdowns on the basketball court that you could ever imagine.

Darnell was always on the outside of the circle, he was always very intrigued about what was going on but he wasn't really sure what was happening, what was taking place and if it were safe or not. Slowly I got to know Darnell through that time and I began to realize that Darnell was a leader. Once you began to to crack him open you could see how well he loved people, how genuine he was about wanting to spend time, to ask questions and this relationship began to be birthed because he was willing to take a leap of courage to get to know an outsider like me.

It was really Darnell that helped shape what Mission: St Louis was to become. One of the things that we saw our community crying out for was the need for engagement specifically around that high schooler, that 20 year old, that young man. So, what began to happen, and Darnell was the beginning of this, we began to grab about 10 of the young men and we began meeting at my house every Thursday to talk about life. It was because of that time where our staff began to go like, ‘Hey there is talent and passion that exists inside this living room.’

We just began to meet weekly. That's what sent us on our mission to be able to engage in what we would call now Workforce Development. We began to see that relationship matters more than anything, creating community, understanding and knowing one another, but then also we had to make sure that the talent that existed in our community met the opportunity that exists in our city. Because of that time, because of Darnell's vulnerability and his courage, our organization was willing to step in and be the bridge between the talent that exists in our community and the opportunity that exists in the metro area.

Watch the video.