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Where some may see a coincidence, others see God's hand at work. As DC-based recording artist and TV host Jeff Majors toured Central Union Mission, he recognized someone. "That's Gregory Leonard," he said, former all-star point guard for a local high
school basketball team. Mr. Leonard, a wealth of basketball talent and strategy, has been living at the Mission as an overnight guest.

A few months later, Wade Simmons was trying to pull together the teen basketball league DC Sports Network that he founded with another former homeless man. The league was shattered when Simmons's partner ran off with the uniform and referee fees the Northeast, DC, boys had invested.

Central Union Mission saw the connection and stepped in to help sponsor the league and a team with Gregory Leonard as the new head coach and Don Ross, Mission chaplain, as assistant. The Mission is also contributing water, computer and copier access and administrative and fundraising help to the league.

According to Dave Treadwell, Mission executive director, this is a perfect opportunity for both the Mission men and the teens. The men gain a chance to contribute to the city's future citizens and to gain some responsibility and job skills. The young men can benefit from the hard-driving competition, the athletic advice from our men and the hard-learned lessons about homeless life. "We can get involved and help the young men, get them off the street and on a positive track, so that we never have to see them here later as adults.

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