“I was born and raised in Clarksdale. I was always the tallest girl in my class. It was weird growing up, but now I like it. I was one of the smart ones, too. I am two classes from my bachelor’s degree and want to get my masters and open my own business. My son, Jadarius, passed January 2nd three years ago. He was only twenty and he played football for Troy University in Alabama and he was getting ready to go pro and sign with the Atlanta Falcons, but he was determined to get his degree. He came home for the holidays and went out with a friend on New Year’s Eve and that is where the story gets sketchy. We don’t know what happened. I got a call the next morning and they said they found him in the road, he had been run over by a car. He was an engineer and math major and was very smart, but he loved football. He was spiritual and spent his summers at football camp and a Christian camp in Florida. I want to open the Jadarius Garner Total Achievement Center where kids can study and play sports and learn what they are good at. If all they see is the streets and the gangs and the shootings, that is all they are going to do. You have to give them something better.I was lucky my kids didn’t get involved in that. My oldest son went into the military and he is a police officer. A village raised my generation and a lot of us made it.”