The Lifting As We Climb Foundation “Sound Mind, Sound Body” camp was established July 16, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan and was formulated with one goal in mind: “Saving Our Youth”. The camp would address three major impediments in the lives of low-income, minority youth : low high school graduation rates, the over emphasis on athletic achievement, and the lack of exposure to a vast array of professional career opportunities other than “making it to the League.” Recognizing these impediments in our communities, we designed the FREE 2-day high school football camp and college preparatory workshop entitled the: “LAWCF Sound Mind, Sound Body Camp.” The goal being to utilize the youth’s interest in athletics as a vehicle to foster their overall development of Life Skills and a Career Roadmap. The event also aims to bring together several organizations within the community to support youth development in football and encourage academic responsibility among student-athletes.

The camp features enriching academic and motivational sessions, along with high performance athletic training. Camp participants receive expert instruction on academics and football skills from professional and collegiate football athletes as well as some of the top collegiate and high school coaches in the country.

A major goal of the camp is to challenge student-athletes in our communities to understand the significance of a ‘SOUND MIND & SOUND BODY.’ This means conveying to camp participants that academics and athletics work together in life, in the classroom and on the playing field. The camp challenges participants to strive for higher levels of achievement in all of these areas.

The 2005 camp was a huge success as over 300 Metro Detroit student-athletes and nearly 150 parents attended the event. Nike and Wilson were major corporate sponsors as they donated over 300 pairs of football cleats and over 40 footballs to be given to participants. The NFL Player hosts of the event were Anthony Adams - San Francisco 49ers, Gerald McBurrows - Atlanta Falcons, Karon Riley - Atlanta Falcons, Kevin Vickerson - Miami Dolphins, and Demeris Johnson- Miami Dolphins.